stop an application loading at startup

[Michelle]

Hello, how do I stop an application loading at startup. I have a web-cam
package that I don't want to start automatically - as well as some others
actually... can I get a list of all the things that launch at startup? can I
stop some of them from launching?

Thanks

M

 

[Gordon Keenan]

Hello, how do I stop an application loading at startup. I have a web-cam
package that I don't want to start automatically - as well as some others
actually... can I get a list of all the things that launch at startup? can
I stop some of them from launching?

Thanks

M

From the command prompt, type MSCONFIG, click the startup tab and select the
items you do not want to start up.

G

 

[Hakvinius]

Yes,
You can go into:
Start - Control Panel - Security - Windows Defender - Tools - Program
Explorer.

Se to that the category is "Start up programs". Click the program you donät
want to start and choose "de-activate".

Later you can re-activate it if you need.

 

[Jerry]

Do NOT use msconfig, use Defender to stop programs from running on startup.
It causes less problems.

 

[Romane]

Um, I have found yet one more way to the two posts above. Right click
'Computer', select 'Manage', Ok the dialogue, open 'Services and
Applications / Services' and find the application in the list. Double click
it, and in the 'Start-up type:' drop-down, there are four options -
Automatic, Automatic (Delayed start), Manual, Disabled'. I have only used
the 'Disabled' option to prevent an unneeded CPU hog from starting, so would
recommend finding out more about the other three options (anyone here?)

What I found was that this saved me from having to go through the 'Selective
startup' hassle with Windows Defender, and the process I disabled does not
even show in the MSConfig listings.

R.

 

[Mark Veldhuis]

Hi,

What I found was that this saved me from having to go through the 'Selective
startup' hassle with Windows Defender, and the process I disabled does not
even show in the MSConfig listings.

That's because MSConfig (also) shows programs that start up at boot, not
just services. Two different things...

 

[Gordon Keenan]

MSCONFIG IS a valid way of stopping items, Defender is just a slower way of
accessing the items MSCONFIG does anyway!
Each to their own.

http://blogs.msdn.com/tims/archive/2006/09/28/windows-vista-secret-9-kill-the-startup-monsters.aspx

 

[Ken Blake, MVP]

Hello, how do I stop an application loading at startup. I have a web-cam
package that I don't want to start automatically - as well as some others
actually... can I get a list of all the things that launch at startup? can I
stop some of them from launching?

On each program you don't want to start automatically, check its
Options to see if it has the choice not to start (make sure you
actually choose the option not to run it, not just a "don't show icon"
option). Many can easily and best be stopped that way. If that doesn't
work, run MSCONFIG from the Start | Run line, and on the Startup tab,
uncheck the programs you don't want to start automatically.

However, if I were you, I wouldn't do this just for the purpose of
running the minimum number of programs. Despite what many people tell
you, you should be concerned, not with how *many* of these programs
you run, but *which*. Some of them can hurt performance severely, but
others have no effect on performance.

Don't just stop programs from running willy-nilly. What you should do
is determine what each program is, what its value is to you, and what
the cost in performance is of its running all the time. You can get
more information about these at
http://castlecops.com/StartupList.html. If you can't find it there,
try google searches and ask about specifics here.

Once you have that information, you can make an intelligent informed
decision about what you want to keep and what you want to get rid of.

 

[cquirke (MVP Windows shell/user)]

On each program you don't want to start automatically, check its
Options to see if it has the choice not to start (make sure you
actually choose the option not to run it, not just a "don't show icon"
option). Many can easily and best be stopped that way.

That really is the best option, else you may find that whenever you
choose to run the app again (or it is launched via file association)
it has added a fresh copy of the integration setting you'd disabled.

That in turn can make things messy, if you want to re-enable all
settings suppressed elsewhere. It also avoids "orphaned" settings
that aren't cleared up when an app is uninstalled.

Finally, if you use multiple tools to reversibly disable things from
the "outside", then the undo process can get snarled up - which did
you use first? What order should they be undone in?

If that doesn't work, run MSCONFIG from the Start | Run line,
and on the Startup tab, uncheck the programs you don't want
to start automatically.

On MSConfig vs. Manage, Services; MSConfig makes it easy to hide MS
services and thus zero in on the 3rd-party additions you prolly won't
need. That's a big win not only over Manage, Services, but many
add-on service managers e.g. Nirsoft's Services and Drivers.

However, if I were you, I wouldn't do this just for the purpose of
running the minimum number of programs. Despite what many people tell
you, you should be concerned, not with how *many* of these programs
you run, but *which*. Some of them can hurt performance severely, but
others have no effect on performance.

Sometimes one may want to do this as a troubleshooting procedure, to
spot what slows down or crashes a system.

If so, the first thing to do, after baseline Safe Mode vs. normal
Windows tests, is to disconnect ALL networking, including all WiFi,
BlueTooth and IR etc. Two reasons:
- these factors may be the cause of your problem
- you may disable defenses and put a connected PC at risk

Once you've done that, you can do a "clean normal boot", i.e. with
everything disabled in MSConfig or whatever. Be careful here; many of
the most thorough tools will let you disable things that really are
part of Windows, so you could disable yourself out of bootability!

From that baseline (assuming it works) you can add back items one or a
few at a time, on a "test to break" basis. This is better that
repeatedly crashing a PC into file-rotting bad exits via repeated
attempts at "test to fix", disabling one thing at a time.

Final tip: Often a single app will have multiple integrations, and
disabling some of these (rather than all or none of these) can trigger
all sorts of bother. It's not easy to know what's part of what.

Don't just stop programs from running willy-nilly. What you should do
is determine what each program is, what its value is to you, and what
the cost in performance is of its running all the time. You can get
more information about these at
http://castlecops.com/StartupList.html. If you can't find it there,
try google searches and ask about specifics here.

Careful with Google searches, for two reasons:
- you may "find" malware sites pushing bad stuff
- you may see innocent items if full log dumps of infected PCs

A lot of the time you'll find forum threads that involve full logs,
usually from HiJackThis. Your browser may highlight the word matches
found in the page, and this may look as if your item was highlighted
in the forum discussion when this may not be the case.

Read carefully...

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On the 'net, *everyone* can hear you scream

 

[Michelle]

Thanks guys - problem sorted

M