Programs on start up

[Sydney]

My Real Player and one or two other programs are launched automatically each
time I start my computer. How can I change this automatic start to these
programs?
Sydney

 

[Ken Blake, MVP]

My Real Player and one or two other programs are launched
automatically each time I start my computer. How can I change this
automatic start to these programs?

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.

 

[Rock]

My Real Player and one or two other programs are launched automatically
each time I start my computer. How can I change this automatic start to
these programs?

This question is regularly asked in this group. You should search a
newsgroup for similar question and answers before posting a new message.

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.

ERUNT
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

 

[Sydney]

Thanks for the valuable answers
Syd

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.

 

[Sydney]

Thanks for your comments
Syd

This question is regularly asked in this group. You should search a
newsgroup for similar question and answers before posting a new message.

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.

ERUNT
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

 

[Rock]

"Sydney"wrote

Thanks for your comments

You're welcome.

 

[Ken Blake, MVP]

Thanks for the valuable answers

You're welcome. Glad to help.