Disabling Startup Programs in Windows

Time for some computing tips because it's Tech Tuesday once again!

Well remember I did a post on What To Do When Computer Boots Up Slow? I did talk then about different ways on how to solve that problem promised to discuss each. I already did a follow-up post about Scandisk and Defrag and today I will talk about how to disable startup programs.

Programs that run from startup can cause a computer to boot up slow and as I have mentioned before there are several ways to prevent a program from running at startup and let me discuss to you here some of the most common ways.

Method A:

Configuring Windows Startup folders for Windows (95/98/Me/XP/Vista)

You can find a number of program shortcuts if you go to (Start –> Programs –> Startup) or (Start –> All Programs –> Startup). Programs found in these shortcuts will run at startup. you just have to delete the shortcuts that you don’t want to run at startup, based on your OS as listed below:

    * Win9x/98/Me – C:\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\StartUp

    * WinNT/2K – C:\Winnt\Profiles\All Users\Start Menu\Programs\StartUp

    * WinXP – C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Start Menu\Programs\Startup

Method B:

Through the use of System Configuration Utility (MSCONFIG)

    * Windows Vista

You can access MSCONFIG by going to “Start”, type the word msconfig and wait for a second for the Windows to search for the utility and then click on the MSCONFIG shown at the top of the menu. (Another easy way of once you have typed msconfig, just hit ENTER, this always works for me!)

 

    * WindowsXP and other Windows

Access the MSCONFIG utility by going to "Start" then to "Run", then type the word msconfig and hit ENTER.

You will find under the Startup tab a list of all the programs that start in the Windows Registry. All you need to do is just uncheck the programs you don’t want to load and leave the rest alone. Once you're done unchecking, click Apply and then click OK.

Windows (95/98/Me/XP)

 

Windows (Vista/7)

It is that easy! Just remember, for anything you are unsure of, leave it alone or get some technical help from friends...or make sure you remember what you uncheck so that if something goes wrong you can restore them back!

Hope you learn something this Tuesday!