Stop programs from starting up automaticly on boot on Windows

Question

Is there an easy way to prevent programs (Such as Logitech and Windows Live) from starting up automatically when I turn my computer on? I rarely use these and each time I start my PC I have to manually exit the program (by right-clicking the system tray icon, or ending the process in the task manager).

Answer 1

To remove programs from the boot process, first check if it it in Start Menu > All Programs > Startup. If it is, remove it.

Next, go Start Menu > Run > msconfig. In the startup tab (I think it is the last tab), unchecked the program you wan to stop starting up. The names may not be the same to what you are used to, so you should check the Manufacturer and Command column to identify the correct programs to 'remove'. If it turns out you have removed the wrong program from the boot process, you can just go back into the msconfig utility and re-enable the program.

Answer 2

There are a few other ways apps can get started automatically - the easiest way to find/disable all of them is the autoruns utility

Answer 3

A good free tool for managing your startup programs that has become popular in the last year or so is Soluto - it analyzes your startup & provides recommendations about startup programs that you may not otherwise have realzed are chewing up startup time and run-time resources. For each, you have the option to leave it in the boot, disable it, or delay it - so it will run, but not slow down the initial bootup. The recommendations are crowdsourced and moderated, so they are generally trustworthy. Anything you do is reversible, too.

Answer 4

Don't forget to check a program's options or preferences. Some do have an option to start on windows start-up that you can disable but hide it well. If I remember right, Live Messenger's option was pretty well hidden, for example.

Answer 5

First, the programs themselves will probably have options allowing you to tell them not to start at logon or system load. Using this function is usually best becuase many programs also check their settings, and if their settings say they ought to start when windows starts, they'll reset themselves to do so whether you used autorns, or msconfig, or any other tool.

For those programs that don't have an easy option to stop themselves, I would recommend CCleaner. It allows you to disable most start up programs very easily, while hiding some of the deep and critical system functions that other programs, such as autoruns, reveal.