How to disable programs when Windows starts

Disabling automatic execution of programs when Windows starts is very important for speed up system loading times. When dealing with a PC with pre-installed software or when it has been used for a long time, it is common to see progressive system slowdowns caused by multiple causes.

One of these, for example, could be linked to startup programs: in fact, certain programs enable the option of by default automatic start with Windows, which affects not only system startup times but also future reactivity (since those programs, even if sometimes invisible, remain active anyway).

However, Windows offers a valid tool to disable programs at startup, a tool that we will analyze in the following lines.

Note: before disabling any program it is good to know exactly what it does on the machine in use; deactivating certain programs, in fact, could make one or more fundamental functionalities of the operating system unusable or make certain services or peripherals unavailable. Proceed with care and attention.

Preliminary information

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Steps for Windows 10 and Windows 8.1

These two operating systems provide one even easier procedure to disable programs at startup compared to previous versions of Windows. We will have to open Activity Management using the key combination CTRL + SHIFT + ALT or CTRL + ALT + DEL and click on Activity management and then on "Start".

The complete list of Windows 8.1 and 10 startup programs will appear: what you need to do is right click on the program (or on the programs) you intend to disable e select “Disable“, Then restart your computer for the changes to take effect.

Procedure for Windows 7 and Windows Vista

The first thing to do is invoke the system tool that will allow disable programs that run automatically at startup: to do this, press the key combination on the keyboard WIN + R and type the command in the window that appears

msconfig.exe

followed by enter.

The interface will look like this:

Click on the tab Start: you will see the entire list of programs that are started together with the operating system, complete with path and registry key attached. To deactivate them, all you have to do is remove the check mark next to each of them, taking care not to disable critical services (such as antivirus, driver managers and so on).

At this point you will have to reboot for the changes to take effect.

Conclusions

If your computer is still slow despite this, we recommend that you take a look at the best ways to clean your PC of malware and useless programs.

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