How do I remove programs from automatically starting up?

[Guest]

When I start up my computer it takes forever because more than five programs
such as quick time and yahoo messenger have to start up ...how do I get them
to stop from starting up with my computer?

Thanks
Missy

 

[Pegasus \(MVP\)]

When I start up my computer it takes forever because more than five programs
such as quick time and yahoo messenger have to start up ...how do I get them
to stop from starting up with my computer?

Thanks
Missy

Click Start / Run / msconfig.exe {OK}
Now examine the items under the Startup tab and
untick the ones you don't want.

 

[Rock]

When I start up my computer it takes forever because more than five programs
such as quick time and yahoo messenger have to start up ...how do I get them
to stop from starting up with my computer?

Thanks
Missy

First step should be to check in the options for the program you don't
want to start and see if there is a setting to tell it not to run at
startup. The next step is to remove any entries you don't want from the
two startup folders:

C:\Documents and Settings\<username>\Start Menu\Programs\Startup
C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Start Menu\Programs\Startup

For anything else uncheck their entries in the startup tab of msconfig:
Start | Run | Msconfig | Ok


Another option is to remove the reference to them from one of these keys
in the registry:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\RunOnce
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\RunOnce

Make sure you have a backup of the registry using a program like ERUNT
before making any changes to the registry.

http://www.larshederer.homepage.t-online.de/erunt/
http://www.larshederer.homepage.t-online.de/erunt/erunt.txt

Installing and Using ERUNT
http://www.silentrunners.org/sr_eruntuse.html
http://www.winxptutor.com/regback.htm

 

[Richard in Va.]

Maybe you could consider "Startup Inspector For Windows".
http://www.windowsstartup.com/startupinspector.php
It's another little program to download and install. But it's on my top10 list.
It helped me to find and understand my startup applications and services. Knowing what
they were, who they belonged to and what they are doing help me to decide weather or not I
wanted/needed it running all the time.

Once installed, get online and pick the "Consult" button to retrieve a description of the
startup item(s) from the online database.
If the online database doesn't provide a description/recommendation, click on the google
link at page bottom and let google search it for you.
Simply uncheck the items you want to stop autostarting.
Simply recheck the item later if you change your mind.
Save the changes you've made a "startup profile" that you can load/unload at will.
(Located under the "More Tasks" button)
Free, but you can make a donation if you'd like.

Maybe this will help as well...!

Best regards,
Richard in Va.
+++++++++++++++++++++++

 

[Ken Blake, MVP]

When I start up my computer it takes forever because more than five
programs such as quick time and yahoo messenger have to start up
...how do I get them to stop from starting up with my computer?

First of all, how long is "forever"?

My personal view is that the attention many people pay to how long it takes
to boot is unwarranted. Assuming that the computer's speed is otherwise
satisfactory, it may not be worth worrying about. Most people start their
computers once a day or even less frequently. In the overall scheme of
things, even a few minutes to start up isn't very important. Personally I
power on my computer when I get up in the morning, then go get my coffee.
When I come back, it's done booting. I don't know how long it took to boot
and I don't care.

However if you do want to address it, it may be because of what programs
start automatically, and you may want to stop some of them from starting
that way. 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.

 

[Plato]

When I start up my computer it takes forever because more than five programs
such as quick time and yahoo messenger have to start up ...how do I get them
to stop from starting up with my computer?

Launch them. Look for a tab to tell it not to start when windows starts.