One of the core principles of effective troubleshooting is that degradation in performance almost always has a proximate cause. Find that cause, reverse it, and you restore performance to its previous, acceptable level.

When trying to track down that elusive proximate cause, the most important thing you can do is ask a simple question: What changed?

When did the problem start? Did you install a new program, device, or driver? Did Windows or a third-party program update itself? Did you experience a power failure? If you can reliably say that your system was performing properly on Wednesday but began misbehaving on Thursday, you may be able to use System Restore to undo system-level changes. If that works, you can try to figure out what happened so that you can prevent it from happening again.

Two key principles to follow when troubleshooting:

1. Stay alert. If you notice your computer slowing down or behaving in an out-of-the-ordinary way, investigate the cause as soon as possible. Don’t install any additional software or make any system changes until you’ve figured out the problem.
2. Don’t automatically assume that the first or most obvious change you think of is the proximate cause of your problem. If you installed a patch via Windows Update, that may or may not be the cause of your current problems.

In the next two installments, I’ll explain how to use diagnostic tools to zero in on the precise problem.

Yesterday, I explained how to rule out startup problems that are specific to your user profile.

If you’ve determined that your system’s slow startup happens even with a clean user account, you can move on to the next step. In this case, the problem could be a system service, a driver, or a program that is attempting to load before you get a chance to log on. To rule out this possibility, try disabling everything that starts automatically.

The easiest tool for this job is the System Configuration Utility, aka Msconfig.exe. This utility lets you fine-tune startup options for diagnostic purposes. I recommend you use it as follows:

1. Close all running programs and save any data files you’re working on. Click Start, Run. In the Open box, type msconfig and press Enter.
2. In the System Configuration Utility dialog box, select the Diagnostic Startup option on the General tab.



3. Click OK.
4. When prompted, choose the option to restart your computer.

The Diagnostic Startup option disables every startup program and most system services (leaving only a handful of core services such as DCOM and RPC running). When you restart, you’ll be greeted with the option shown here.

Click OK, but do not select the check box here. When the informational dialog box goes away, the System Configuration Utility opens again.

Did your system start without the delays you’ve been experiencing? If so, you can conclude that the culprit is one (or more) of the programs or services that are starting up automatically. Tomorrow’s tip will explain how to find that troublemaker.

If your startup was still unacceptably slow, the problem could be a defective piece of hardware, a corrupted Windows installation, or a faulty driver. I’ll tackle those topics later in the week.

What should you do if your system is taking longer than it should to start up? Don’t start randomly tweaking system settings. Instead, go through basic troubleshooting to see if you can narrow down the problem. This week, I’ll list five separate steps you can take to quickly narrow down the source of the problem.

One cause of slow startups is a program (or programs) trying unsuccessfully to load or make a network connection when you log on to your user account. To identify this sort of problem, create a new user account and log on using that account. If the new account starts up normally, you can start looking more closely at what’s happening in your user profile.

To create a new account, follow these steps:

1. Open Control Panel and double-click the User Accounts icon.
2. Click Create a new account.
3. Type a name for the new account and click Next.
4. In the Pick an account type dialog box, leave Computer administrator selected and click Create Account.

Log off (Start, Log Off, Log Off) and then log on using the new account. The first time you log on, you’ll experience a delay as Windows creates the files for your profile. After completing this step, shut down your computer and restart. When you reach the Welcome screen, choose the new account you created.

If you experience a slow logon, you can rule out any problem with your profile and focus on hardware-related issues or overall system settings.

The default mouse pointer in Windows XP is relatively small and relatively subtle. For most people, it’s big enough. But if you have anything less than perfect vision, you may benefit from a bigger, brighter mouse pointer.

To see the alternatives and experiment with different pointers, open Control Panel and double-click the Mouse icon.

On the Pointers tab, click the drop-down list under the Scheme heading. The 3-D Bronze scheme, shown below, adds a touch of color to the pointer but doesn’t change its size.

To add motion and extra color to your mouse pointers, try the Windows Animated scheme. If you want bigger arrows and hourglasses, use the Magnified scheme with its thick borders, or choose the Large or Extra Large versions of the Windows Default, Windows Black, or Windows Inverted schemes.

Preview the pointers in the list at the bottom of the box and choose OK or Apply. (For an explanation of the difference between these two buttons, see this tip from the archives.)

Change your mind? Go back to the Mouse Properties dialog box and click Use Default.

It looks like at least one small snippet of code from Windows Vista is ready to be included in Windows XP. Microsoft has released an updated version of the System Configuration Utility (Msconfig.exe).

The update adds a new Tools tab to this utility, which provides a convenient jumping-off spot for 13 utilities that were previously scattered across the Windows interface.

(Click to see a larger image.)

It’s a useful, if hardly earth-shattering, addition.

For advice on how to use the System Configuration Utility properly, see this article.