Harry and others,
I'd like to add some input to this discussion and provide a likely 
explanation for why your system didn't start up with audio.
First, let me say that, when done correctly, there is nothing wrong with 
using selective startup. You just have to alter the status of the 
startup items in order to change the setting, which I'll explain in a 
bit. My system is using this setting and essential items, such as sound, 
my screen reader, antivirus program, etc. start up with no problems. 
Here's the issue: if you change your settings from normal startup to 
selective startup as your first step, what this does, at least on my 
system, is that it disables every item in the startup section of your 
MSConfig system, including, in your case,  your audio.
Here's what I would do. First, set your system back on normal startup 
and restart. If your friend went into msconfig and enabled sounds 
without anything else, it's possible that some other essential programs 
aren't running.
Once your system restarts, you can go into msconfig, keep it under 
normal startup but move to the startup tab of the program and not the 
general tab. The startup tab contains a list of items which are set to 
run at startup. The items should all be checked, meaning they are 
running. You can move through the list with your up/down arrow keys and 
uncheck items you don't want running at startup. Exercise caution when 
doing this. If you see a program running and you don't know what it is, 
do some research by Googling the item first in order to learn what the 
program is before you decide to uncheck it from the list.
After you uncheck the items you don't want running at startup and you 
close the dialog, the "normal startup" radio button in the general tab 
will be changed and will be set to "selective startup."
One very good program that I use to examine my startup items and make 
appropriate changes is Winpatrol, available from
www.winpatrol.com
The free version is quite functional. The paid version, which I believe 
costs around $29.95, includes a database which can provide descriptions 
of many of these startup items. The program is quite accessible, except 
for a few items but even those items have workarounds. I've sent the 
author of the program some feedback as to how he might improve the 
program with some keyboard accessibility improvements and he was 
extremely open to my comments and in acting on them for future versions.

Feel free to visit my Web site
http://www.davidgoldfield.info

                  David Goldfield,
         Assistive Technology Specialist

On 2/7/2015 4:43 PM, Harry Brown wrote:
> Hi all. What a terrible experience I've had this past 24 hours! I've 
> been working on my windows 7 computer, trying to speed it up, and 
> that's a good thing, we need to do that with computers! However, 1 
> suggestion was given to me, to go into msconfig, which I did, and I 
> was told, "use selective startup, because fewer things will start up, 
> causing your computer to boot faster." What they didn't tell me is, 
> when you set your computer to the selective startup setting, you 
> completely, lose audio, and folks, I lost every bit of audio, no 
> screen reader, no windows music, no audio from cds, nothing! 
> Fortunately, my friend Dave, who is also on this list by the way, came 
> over, and he has, thank God, enough sight to see the screen. So, he 
> said, "Harry, I'm gonna go into msconfig", and when he got there, I 
> told him, "you see where it is set to selective startup?" "Sure do", 
> he said." I told him, "can you put it back to normal startup?" "Sure 
> thing", he said, "I'll do it for ya, right now!" Now folks, I didn't 
> know if it would fix the problem or not, however, he put it in normal 
> startup, then applyed it, and clicked ok, and restarted the computer. 
> And folks, wonderfully, I heard my windows music, and then jaws! So, 
> first, a huge thank you to you Dave, and of course I already told ya 
> that, inn person, but I wanted to say it here, on the list! Secondly, 
> whatever you do folks, *DO NOT*, and I mean do not, use selective 
> startup, because if you do, you'll have the same problem I had, with 
> no windows music, no audio of any kind. Just trying to save people 
> some stress and fear. Harry
>
>
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