Removing Quick Launch Programs

[Guest]

How do I remove programs from Quick Launch that open and run when I turn the
computer on. Several are running in the background and are not necessary.
Thanks, Rick

 

[Rock]

How do I remove programs from Quick Launch that open and run when I turn
the
computer on. Several are running in the background and are not necessary.

Programs don't run from quicklaunch at startup. There are around 15 places
where the they can start from but not there.

To eliminate a startup program 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

The next step 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

Instead of editing the registry you can uncheck their entries in the startup
tab of msconfig:
Start | Run | Msconfig | Ok. However, msconfig is best used only for
diagnostic work, not as a startup program manager.

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

 

[Guest]

Thanks, I appreciate your feedback and will get to work on it. Rick

 

[Detlev Dreyer]

How do I remove programs from Quick Launch that open and run when I
turn the computer on. Several are running in the background and are
not necessary.

Note that programs in the Quicklaunch Toolbar are *not* startet auto-
matically in contrast to programs showing up in the Notification area.
Disable the automatic start via their program options (right click or
doubleclick the icons).

 

[Rock]

You're welcome.

Thanks, I appreciate your feedback and will get to work on it. Rick

 

[Ken Blake, MVP]

How do I remove programs from Quick Launch that open and run when I
turn the computer on. Several are running in the background and are
not necessary. Thanks, Rick

You are perhaps mixing up the Quick Launch bar with the System Tray.
Programs in the Quick Launch bar have not been started automatically, but
those in the System Tray (the official name is the System Notification Area)
have.

Note that you should be concerned with *all* programs that start
automatically, not just with those that go into the system tray. Not all
autostarting programs manifest themselves by an icon in the tray.

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.