Where has msconfig gone?

Question

I used to be able to go start>run msconfig (in win XP) but now I get a message saying the file is missing.

What I want to do is edit what starts up at startup.

Is msconfig the dest way or are there freeware programs that do it better?

Answer 1

IMHO Autoruns is way better than msconfig. I've used it for years and it offers much more granularity in processes and locations.

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/bb963902.aspx

I'm not sure what happened to your msconfig.exe. you could do a search of your pc and find it.

I found the .exe in this folder: C:\WINDOWS\pchealth\helpctr\binaries. I'm not sure where it is supposed to live, though.

Answer 2

I recommend autoruns, but if you prefer msconfig, you can find it here on XP:

C:\WINDOWS\ServicePackFiles\i386

Answer 3

Just to chime in with another alternative to msconfig: If the machine is running Windows Defender it also has a startup manager built-in.

But yeah, I prefer autoruns for level of detail.

Answer 4

the default location MSCONFIG.EXE is c:\windows\system32

if the file is missing you may expand it from your installations CD:

expand d:\i386\msconfig.ex_ c:\windows\system32\msconfig.exe

where d: is the assumed drive letter of your CDROM/DVD drive.

while MSCONFIG is not a startup manager (autoruns and the likes do a far better job indeed) it is certainly a viable troubleshooting utility and the reason for its miraculous disappearance should be investigated as well.