There are five choices under Selective Setup in the System Configuration Utility. I click on START UP and make my selections there. My question is this. On the General Tab page, do I need ticks in the five blocks, i.e Process System.ini file , etc. or should they be left blank?

If you've chosen 'Selective Startup' then anything that's not 'ticked' won't load. It's mainly a troubleshooting feature - shutting off wadges of stuff is probably not a good idea. Unless you are troubleshooting or are terminating a specific, persistant startup process you probably shouldn't choose Selective Startup at all Give me ambiguity or give me something else

I didn't make my question clear. What blocks do I check (uncheck) on the General Tab page if I am going to choose to use Selective Startup.

It's up to you to decide how selective a startup you want - it's purely for troubleshooting, so in theory you start off will all boxes disabled & then each time you reboot, you enable another box & see where the problems occur - each one is meant to assist in narrowing down a problem area. For normal running, if you have no problems, all boxes should be ticked. You should not need to run your system with some boxes ticked - it's just trying to ignore a problem. "I know that I'm mad - I've always been mad..."

It's up to you to decide how selective a startup you want - it's purely for troubleshooting, so in theory you start off will all boxes disabled & then each time you reboot, you enable another box & see where the problems occur - each one is meant to assist in narrowing down a problem area. For normal running, if you have no problems, all boxes should be ticked. You should not need to run your system with some boxes ticked - it's just trying to ignore a problem. MSConfig is badly used as it is - for long-term troubleshooting you should always use 'Services' in Admin. "I know that I'm mad - I've always been mad..."

"I didn't make my question clear" Oh, I think the question is understood, just not the rationale behind it. I suppose the issue is why do you feel you need to use Selective Startup in the first place? As has been mentioned, whatever isn't checked won't load. Windows would be severely crippled if say, system.ini wasn't processed - you shut enough stuff off and you'll have simulated Safe Mode. Usually these things are done for a reason Give me ambiguity or give me something else