Shoutbox

Allright, so there we go :

I take my laptop with me at college; at home; I use it as a desktop computer (got a hub connected to an external monitor, and every other gadget).

Now what I'm looking for is to be able to find some kind of software to be able to change the programs that load at windows start. The reason is simple; at home I have an external webcam, speakers, monitor, gps, printer etc. that all need a software running with it. When I'm on the go; there's no need for all of that to load; since I can't use the hardware anyways and that it gives the laptop a major slowdown.

I've thought about creating a second user that I would use on the go and simply disabling all of the extra non needed software, but I would really appreciate keeping everything in one session; as I'd have to configure different software and different folders to be apart..

So my question is; does anyone know of any software that could actually do what I'm looking for? Or anyone have a second solution? That'd be very appreciated.

Thanks in advance!
- albert

Unless i missread, can't you just make another user and use msconfig to disable everything?

Sorry if i've got it wrong??

quote:

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Originally posted by john-t
Unless i missread, can't you just make another user and use msconfig to disable everything?

Sorry if i've got it wrong??

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quote:

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Originally posted by albert
I've thought about creating a second user that I would use on the go and simply disabling all of the extra non needed software, but I would really appreciate keeping everything in one session; as I'd have to configure different software and different folders to be apart..

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Someone here has was in a similar situation but just used 2 profiles and edited the startup registry.

Also, someone made different hardware profiles which you can read here, may interest you.

You can manage hardware profiles by right clicking My Computer > Properties > Hardware > Hardware Profiles.

Except for the most logic solution, creating different hardware profiles (since your situation is the exact purpose of this function), you could also simply create your own startup script which loads the needed software.

At home, you could run this script. At work/school you don't. All from the same account. Of course, it wouldn't work (or at least it would be very difficult) when you also want to switch between drivers and services. Such a script is mostly good for some registry settings, and stuff you would normally put in your startup list or "run" registry settings.

Making hardware profiles is the best option....

hey, first off thanks to chris for the hardware profile; i wasn't aware it actually existed. I've looked into it; and it seems the process has changed a little bit in vista; you can't ''create'' a hardware profile. The OS seems to create it for you, and sadly; no matter what I do; it sticks to the only profile I seem to have ''undocked''.

I'm still in the process of googling to find how to create a different profile (busy with work atm..), but that sounds pretty good to me.

quote:

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Originally posted by CookieRevised
At home, you could run this script. At work/school you don't.

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I actually thought of that.. But there are so many settings I'd like to be different from a ''laptop use'' to a ''desktop use'' that I wonder if it wouldn't be easy with the hardware profile..

Anyways, I'll keep googling; and I'll keep you guys updated to what I do finally. THanks to all!