When you uncheck a startup entry in msconfig, where does the entry go?

Question

Just as the title says. I'm using Windows XP and I was wondering where entries go when unchecked (including registry entries and entries in the Startup folder of the start menu).

Answer 1

When you uncheck a listed item within msconfig the item doesn't actually dissapear. It's even possible to uncheck a program, uninstall that program and still have it show up in msconfig as unchecked.

This happens because msconfig doesn't really delete items from the list it just moves them around in the registry.

The checked items list is populated from these registry locations

• HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE \ Software \ Microsoft \ Windows \ CurrentVersion\ Run
• HKEY_CURRENT_USER \ Software \ Microsoft \ Windows \ CurrentVersion \ Run
• HKEY_CURRENT_USER \ Software \ Microsoft \ Windows NT \ CurrentVersion \ Windows (Values named Run & Load)

And the unchecked items list is populated from

• HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE \ Software \ Microsoft \ Shared Tools \ MSConfig \ startupreg
• HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE \ Software \ Microsoft \ Shared Tools \ MSConfig \ startupfolder

So when you disable a start-up item from msconfig, it moves the entry from one of the top3 locations to one of the bottom 2.