In a recent article you detailed how to enable and disable startup items by going to the “Start” menu > “Run” > “msconfig”. However, when I try this procedure on Windows Vista there is no “Run” option in the start menu. Is this procedure done differently in Vista?

You are correct that the “Run” option has been removed from the Start menu in Windows Vista. However, the System Configuration Utility is still very easy to access. Instead of going to the “Start” menu > “Run”, open the “Start” menu and then type “msconfig” (without the quotes) into the Search box on the Start menu. You should see either “System Configuration Utility” or “msconfig.exe” appear in the search results on the Start menu, which you can then click on to open the utility. Another method is to press the Windows Key + R, which is the shortcut key to open the (hidden) Run dialog box where you can enter “msconfig” into and click OK, like Windows XP. Remember to be careful when disabling processes as some may be important for the operation of Windows and other software packages, so ensure that you always note down which processes you disable, in case they need to be re-enabled later. You should also only disable processes when you know what they do, otherwise you could unknowingly be disabling important processes.