PREVIOUS AND RELATED CONTENTĮd Bott's extensive collection of Windows 10 tips, organized by category. To completely remove an unwanted program from the startup list, you'll need to use the original installer app (assuming the developer included that capability) or a utility like the excellent AutoRuns, part of the Microsoft Sysinternals collection. (Both options are also available if you right-click any entry on the list.)ĭisabling a startup entry doesn't uninstall it, nor does it prevent that program from running when you decide you need it. To re-enable a disabled app, click the Enable button. To prevent a program from starting automatically, click its entry in the list and then click the Disable button at the bottom of the Task Manager window. (Right-click that heading and choose the Disk I/O at startup and CPU at startup columns to see even more details, as shown in the screenshot above.) The performance impact of each entry in the list is categorized as Low, Medium, or High in the Startup Impact column. That tab displays a startlingly long list of programs that have been configured to start up every time you turn on your PC.
#HOW TO FIND PROGRAMS RUNNING ON STARTUP FULL#
(If you don't see any tabs, click the More details link at the bottom to expand Task Manager to its full glory.) To start, press Ctrl+Shift+Esc to open Task Manager and then click the Startup tab. Windows 10 offers control over a wider range of auto-starting programs directly from Task Manager.
In older Windows versions, you probably became accustomed to managing a limited selection of these nuisances using the Msconfig utility. The above command will show all Session jobs. If you Linux system uses upstart, run this command to list all startup services: sudo initctl list. You can also view the status of a specific service at different run level like below: sudo chkconfig -list httpd. You almost certainly want your cloud file storage utility to run automatically so it can sync changes and new files added to OneDrive or Dropbox while you were away, for example.īut other auto-start programs are simply resource-draining vampires, placed there by program developers who decided their little icon in the system tray should always be visible, even though you rarely use their software. In the above command, 'on' means the service is started at boot. Most of the time, auto-starting programs. Most of the time, auto-starting programs are benign and useful. Those auto-start programs can run as a result of entries in the Windows registry, scheduled tasks, Group Policy settings, even the ancient Win.ini file. Those auto-start programs can run as a result of entries in the Windows registry, scheduled tasks, Group Policy settings, even the ancient Win.ini file.
Every time you start your PC, Windows checks in more than a dozen places to see if you (or, more likely, some program you installed) has specified that a program should start automatically.