How can I stop Start Up programs when I log on as Administrator?

[Jonathan Finney]

I've been advised that it's best not to have users accounts be members of
the Administrators group For security reasons. With this in mind, I've
limited user accounts (currently just mine), but when I log on as
Administrator, all my desktop/folder/etc. settings are back to the Windows
XP defaults (as I'd expect, but not as I'd like). The problem is that the
same programs that normally start when I log on as myself also start up. I
don't understand why this is and it's certainly a bit of a pain as the main
reason I'd log on as Administrator now is to install a new program or
perform some other admin task that would not require any of my normal
programs running.

Is it possible to disable these items so I get a clean log on?

Only one item is located in Current User\Start Menu group and some in
Current User\Windows Registry\Run, so these aren't a problem. However, most
are located in All Users\Start Menu group and some in users\Windows
Registry\Run and these are the ones I need to change.

Problem is I have no idea how to do this. Can you help?

 

[Wesley Vogel]

Jonathan,

You see items from both these folders in the Start Menu:
C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Start Menu or %allusersprofile%\Start
Menu
and
C:\Documents and Settings\YourNameHere\Start Menu or %userprofile%\Start
Menu

Items in
C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Start Menu\Programs\Startup
or
%allusersprofile%\Start Menu\Programs\Startup
start regardless of who logs on.

Items in
C:\Documents and Settings\YourNameHere\Start Menu\Programs\Startup
or
%userprofile%\Start Menu\Programs\Startup
start only when YourNameHere logs on.

The same with the Desktop. The Desktop you see is a combination of two
folders.

You see a combination of both of these folders:
C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Desktop or %allusersprofile%\Desktop
and
C:\Documents and Settings\YourNameHere\Desktop or %userprofile%\Desktop

Anything in
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run
will start regardless of who is logged on.

Anything in HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE is machine wide.

Anything in
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run
starts only when the current user logs on.

Anything in HKEY_CURRENT_USER relates to the current user that is logged on.

There is also a corresponding key for the current user that is logged on.
HKEY_USERS\Security ID (SID) #

HKEY_USERS\S-1-5-21-1708537768-1580436667-1202660629-1003 is mine.

%allusersprofile% is an environment variable that is the path to the All
Users folder.

Typing or pasting %allusersprofile% into the Start | Run box opens to the
Documents and Settings\All Users folder on whatever drive it is located on.

I.e. C:\Documents and Settings\All Users

%userprofile% is an environment variable that is the path to the user's home
folder.

Typing or pasting %userprofile% into the Start | Run box opens to the
Documents and Settings folder on whatever drive it is located on for the
logged in user.

I.e. C:\Documents and Settings\Your Name Here

--
Hope this helps. Let us know.

Wes
MS-MVP Windows Shell/User

In

 

[Jonathan Finney]

Thanks Wes.

This has helped to clarify why my 'user' Start-Up items start when I log on
as Administrator, but I don't feel confident to start messing about with
stuff in the user folders or the registry unless it's a proven way to solve
this problem. I notice you've steered clear of suggesting that this would
be a workable solution.

Maybe there's another workaround. It strikes me that there's nothing
particularly unusual about my needs here. I'd be perfectly happy leaving my
account with administrator privileges as my security is otherwise pretty
tight (connected via router which has been configured for security by a
consultant, plus good anti-virus and anti-spyware). But then I've heard it
said so many times that this is not best practice and I can appreciate the
justification, so I've bitten the bullet and made my account 'limited' and
accepted the hassle of having to log off and log back on as 'administrator'
whenever I need to do any admin tasks. This is a major inconvenience when
you're not used to it and, of course, none of the preferences I've set up on
my user account are there. Then I have to wait for the Start-Up programs to
finish loading before I can close them down again (*sigh*) and perform the
task (..now, what was it I needed to do?).

All I want to do is disable some of the Start-Up items from loading when I
log on as Administrator. I don't understand why managing these options is
not already part of XP's extensive management facilities. Am I missing
something?

Thanks again for your help. I don't know what I'd do without help from the
likes of you guys!

 

[Wesley Vogel]

Jonathan,

It's up to you what programs start and what programs do not start at boot.

My account is an administrator account.

I started to type out a bunch of stuff, but I agree with you, log on as an
administrator. That's what I do. Your paragraph about the hassle has only
reinforced my opinion.

I personally do not care if it is the best practice or not. The safest
practice would be to unplug the modem. I am not going to do that either.
;-)

I use both of these.

[[StartMan is an extended 'msconfig' Startup Manager, designed to take
control of all those pesky programs and background services that load and
run at logon - most of which you probably don't need. As well as providing
the usual trouble-shooting options to enable or disable startups, StartMan
also permits the removal of startups.
Duplicate Detection and Removal, a unique feature of StartMan, can be
configured to remove all duplicates automatically, with or without
prompting.
Orphan Detection and Removal. As above, for orphaned startups.
Executable Detection and Removal. As above, for executables.
Includes a full range of sorting options to make it easier to locate a
specific startup - by name, by filename - even by command line parameter! ]]

StartMan v1.3.96
http://www.pt.lu/comnet/desc/startman.html

StartMan v1.3.96 Direct download
http://www.pt.lu/comnet/files/utils/startman10396.exe
-----

Startup Control Panel is another pretty good application.

[[Startup Control Panel is a nifty control panel applet that allows you to
easily configure which programs run when your computer starts. It's simple
to use and, like all my programs, is very small and won't burden your
system. A valuable tool for system administrators!]]

Download the EXE Version and just extract the executable wherever you want.

Startup Control Panel
http://www.mlin.net/StartupCPL.shtml

--
Hope this helps. Let us know.

Wes
MS-MVP Windows Shell/User

In

 

[Jonathan Finney]

Thanks Wes.

I'm already using MSCONFIG and the Mike Lin's app, but StartMan is even
better.

The apps I wanted to disable from loading when logging on as Admin were
items I'd added to the StartUp menu by copying a shortcut from their default
location in All Programs. With StartMan it's just a matter of right
clicking and Moving to Current User. They no longer start when I log on as
Administrator. I guess I could have done this by moving things manually,
but I wasn't sure how to and this makes things much easier.

However, after installation it flagged some items as Orphans and I deleted
them. Don't know why this is because I then had to recreate them and
they're still showing as orphans. Any ideas on this? Links to Correct
don't work or take you to an accounting firm who now have this domain.

--
Jonathan Finney


Like you, I think I'll leave my account as admin for now, but

Jonathan,

It's up to you what programs start and what programs do not start at boot.

My account is an administrator account.

I started to type out a bunch of stuff, but I agree with you, log on as an
administrator. That's what I do. Your paragraph about the hassle has
only
reinforced my opinion.

I personally do not care if it is the best practice or not. The safest
practice would be to unplug the modem. I am not going to do that either.
;-)

I use both of these.

[[StartMan is an extended 'msconfig' Startup Manager, designed to take
control of all those pesky programs and background services that load and
run at logon - most of which you probably don't need. As well as providing
the usual trouble-shooting options to enable or disable startups, StartMan
also permits the removal of startups.
Duplicate Detection and Removal, a unique feature of StartMan, can be
configured to remove all duplicates automatically, with or without
prompting.
Orphan Detection and Removal. As above, for orphaned startups.
Executable Detection and Removal. As above, for executables.
Includes a full range of sorting options to make it easier to locate a
specific startup - by name, by filename - even by command line
parameter! ]]

StartMan v1.3.96
http://www.pt.lu/comnet/desc/startman.html

StartMan v1.3.96 Direct download
http://www.pt.lu/comnet/files/utils/startman10396.exe
-----

Startup Control Panel is another pretty good application.

[[Startup Control Panel is a nifty control panel applet that allows you to
easily configure which programs run when your computer starts. It's simple
to use and, like all my programs, is very small and won't burden your
system. A valuable tool for system administrators!]]

Download the EXE Version and just extract the executable wherever you
want.

Startup Control Panel
http://www.mlin.net/StartupCPL.shtml

--
Hope this helps. Let us know.

Wes
MS-MVP Windows Shell/User

In

 

[Jonathan Finney]

Hi Wes.

The items wrongly identified as orphans by StartMan don't appear to have a
path listed in the main view and the entry in the File column is:

%systemroot%\explorer.exe

in both cases. Have I done something wrong? The shortcuts seem to work OK,
so maybe it's because this is an old program (last update was 2002). I have
set the option to ignore orphans

I'd like to know a bit more about the type of string used above. You Used
this type of expression in your earlier reply (e.g. "%userprofile%"), but I
don't understand what it means or how it's used.

--
Jonathan Finney

Jonathan,

It's up to you what programs start and what programs do not start at boot.

My account is an administrator account.

I started to type out a bunch of stuff, but I agree with you, log on as an
administrator. That's what I do. Your paragraph about the hassle has
only
reinforced my opinion.

I personally do not care if it is the best practice or not. The safest
practice would be to unplug the modem. I am not going to do that either.
;-)

I use both of these.

[[StartMan is an extended 'msconfig' Startup Manager, designed to take
control of all those pesky programs and background services that load and
run at logon - most of which you probably don't need. As well as providing
the usual trouble-shooting options to enable or disable startups, StartMan
also permits the removal of startups.
Duplicate Detection and Removal, a unique feature of StartMan, can be
configured to remove all duplicates automatically, with or without
prompting.
Orphan Detection and Removal. As above, for orphaned startups.
Executable Detection and Removal. As above, for executables.
Includes a full range of sorting options to make it easier to locate a
specific startup - by name, by filename - even by command line
parameter! ]]

StartMan v1.3.96
http://www.pt.lu/comnet/desc/startman.html

StartMan v1.3.96 Direct download
http://www.pt.lu/comnet/files/utils/startman10396.exe
-----

Startup Control Panel is another pretty good application.

[[Startup Control Panel is a nifty control panel applet that allows you to
easily configure which programs run when your computer starts. It's simple
to use and, like all my programs, is very small and won't burden your
system. A valuable tool for system administrators!]]

Download the EXE Version and just extract the executable wherever you
want.

Startup Control Panel
http://www.mlin.net/StartupCPL.shtml

--
Hope this helps. Let us know.

Wes
MS-MVP Windows Shell/User

In