Learn 18 Ways To Disable Startup Programs In Windows

How to disable startup programs

Follow these steps to disable startup programs if you use Windows 10:

• Identify the startup programs on your system.
  1. Open the ‘Start’ menu and search for the ‘Settings’.
  2. Click on the ‘Apps’ settings.
  3. Search for the ‘Startup’ option from the panel on the left side of your screen.
  4. The list of applications that run during startup would be displayed. Make sure the program that you want to run is kept ‘ON’.
  5. To disable the startup program, use the toggle, and push it to ‘OFF’ mode.
  6. This way you can enable or disable the startup programs in Windows 10.
• If you cannot find startup options in settings, follow these steps:
  1. Right-click your startup menu > Select the ‘Task manager’ > Click on the ‘Startup tab or More details’.
  2. Click on the application you want to change, that is, you want to enable the program to run or disable the program from running.

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• Use this shortcut for the same if any of the above methods didn’t work:
  1. Press Windows key + R.
  2. Type ‘shell:startup’ in the space provided.
  3. The ‘Startup’ folder with all the applications would be displayed.

Note: If there is more than one user, then use the ‘All users startup folder’ in the ‘System administrator and use this shortcut:

1. Press Windows key + R.
2. Type ‘shell:common startup’ in the space provided.

Follow these steps to disable startup programs if you use Windows 8:

• In Windows 8 and the earlier versions, the startup settings were available on the Start menu itself, which was removed in the later version like windows 10.
• If you cannot find the Startup menu in your Start menu, follow these steps:
  1. Open your ‘Task Manager’ option from the Start tab.
  2. Search for the ‘Startup’ menu and enable or disable the application from running during Windows start-up.

Follow these steps to disable startup programs if you use Windows 7:

• Open the Start menu and search for ‘Run’.
• Type ‘msconfig’ on the space provided to access the ‘System Configuration Utility’ and then click on ‘OK’ or press ‘Enter’
• The ‘Startup’ dialog box would open from which you can choose to disable startup programs or applications that you don’t want.

You can access the startup settings of a particular program or application by:

• Press Cntrl + Shift + Esc to open the ‘Task Manager’.
• Click on the ‘Startup’ tab from the top of the panel.
• Search for the application you want to disable and click on it.
• If it is enabled, you would find a ‘Disable’ option on the bottom right corner of the dialog box.
• Click on it.

Note: If you are not able to disable startup programs or it automatically turns enabled then:

• Check for the application settings/ troubleshooting options, as it might have any shield or protection mode to prevent disabling.
• Click or uncheck the shield and then try disabling the application from the startup menu.
• You can check whether the startup program is disabled by restarting your laptop or PC.

A startup program is useful if you want to run several applications along with Windows, as you can simply add them under startup programs instead of changing the settings of each application. 

To add a startup program follow these steps:

• Search for the application in the Start menu.
• Right-click on the application name you want to add and select the ‘Open File Location’ option.
• Right-click on the file and select ‘Send to’ followed by ‘Desktop’ to create a shortcut.
• Use the Windows logo key + R, type ‘shell:startup’ and click on ‘OK’.
• Once the startup folder opens, copy, and paste the shortcut of the application to this folder.

In this article, we have covered all the aspects of how to disable startup programs and why should you do it. Hope this was useful to make your Windows open faster than before!