[FAQ] Stopping Applications From Starting When Windows Boots Up

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We wrote this FAQ to answer the many questions we receive on this topic from our clients and other inquiring minds in the many electronic communities we frequent.

Stopping Applications From Starting When Windows Boots Up

Ever install some seemingly innocuous software only to find when you restart Windows it suddenly takes on a life of it's own? Every time you start Windows program X starts up. This annoys you because if you want it to run you're capable of running it yourself. You'd like to think you're in control of your computer and not be subject to some software developer's whim. But try as you might you can't find where this application gets its marching orders when Windows starts.

Here are the steps you can take to regain control over your system. These techniques may not work with every piece of intrusive software you come up against (software developers are tenacious), but it will go a long way to quashing the majority of obnoxious applications that insist of running whether you want them to or not.

Windows StartUp Folder

This is the most likely spot to look first and, in our opinion, the only place a well-behaved program should place itself in order to be started when Windows starts. When Windows starts up it runs any files it finds in the C:\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\StartUp\ folder. If you don't want a file to run, you simply remove it from the StartUp folder. But more often, we're running into applications that bypass the StartUp folder altogether, making controlling their behavior much more difficult.

The WIN.INI File

You might have forgotten about the good old WIN.INI file, but this hold over from the pre-Windows 95 days is still around and can be used to fire off programs. Click on Start / Run, type in Win.ini.

The Load and the Run lines appear at the top of the file in the [windows] section:

[windows]
load=obnoxious.exe
NullPort=None
run=
device=HP LaserJet IIP,HPPCL,\\Ripley\laserjet

If you find an application that's being started from either line you can either delete the text that appears to the right of the equals sign, or you can precede the entire line with a semicolon.

;load=obnoxious.exe

The Registry Suspects

Failing to find joy in either the StartUp folder or in the Win.ini file you turn carefully to the Registry. The usual warnings about mucking about in the Registry apply. Don't do this when you're in a hurry or watching the X-Files. And make a backup copy of User.dat and System.dat (the two files that comprise the Registry) before doing this.

The keys to check are:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\RunServices

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run

Be careful that you do don't remove things that you actually need. To be cautious you can deactivate something (rather than delete it) by double-clicking on the item that appears in the right-hand window in Regedit. In the "Value data" text box add REM to the beginning of the line. This will prevent that line from being executed when Windows starts and you can easily remove the REM to make it active again.

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