This is a process used to try to minimise interference from software on your system in an attempt to rule out 3rd party software as a cause of your symptoms.
It can also be used to improve the boot performance of the system (i.e. from pressing the 'On' button to Desktop).
- Please type MSConfig in the Start Menu Search Box and select 'System Configuration' from the results
- Make sure 'Normal' startup is selected and select it first if it isn't
- Now click on the Services tab and tick the box that says 'Hide all Microsoft Services'
- Then click 'Disable all'
- Click 'OK' and select Exit without Restart' when prompted
- Press Ctrl+Shift+Esc on the keyboard to launch Task Manager
- Select the 'Start-up' tab at the top (if you don't see this, select 'more details' at the bottom first)
- Manually 'Disable' all of the programs here by Right Clicking on each one and selecting Disable
- Once they're all Disabled you can Restart the PC
When the system restarts, you should initially notice that it's faster, but also that nothing else starts up with Windows, i.e. no other background tasks.
Some software ignores this though, like Anti-Virus tools etc and some malicious software does too, so if you've still got applications starting up with your system you should also check this folder:
C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\StartUp
(Make a backup first!) Delete all the items in that folder and reboot again.