How To Disable Programs That Run When Windows Starts

ifferent programs on a computer often include items which start up every time your computer starts. Some of them show up as icons in the system tray in the lower right corner of the screen. Others run silently in the background. Many of them are bundled with popular applications. While they are not malicious in nature, they can still be a strain on system resources. It is a good idea to find them and disable the ones which are not needed. Much of the software you download and buy comes packaged with useless programs that run in the computer's background whenever it is turned on. More often than not, the original applications they are bundled with work just fine without them.

A recommended program for this type of 'clean-up' is called Startup Inspector which is free for download and shows a list of all of the programs which start when your computer boots, allowing for manual disabling of the items which are not necessary. When Startup Inspector is used to disable a program, it does not delete it, but only prevents it from running at boot time. Therefore if anything seems to not work as you need it to after the next reboot you can just re-enable what is needed..

NOTE: This is not related to system programs. It is related to third-party applications. To learn more about disabling system background processes please see the article How To Disable Background Processes In Windows XP.

Here are the instructions, step-by-step, for downloading startup inspector and using it to disable unnecessary startup items to reduce overall memory usage:

1. Download Startup Inspector from windowsstartup.com.
2. Install Startup Inspector.
3. Run it. You will see a list of all of the applications which are in the start-up list. The ones with a check mark next to them are the ones which start up each time Windows starts.
4. To disable programs from starting up (after doing some research at Google or at www.windowsstartup.com to find out what each one is) remove the checkmark from the corresponding box to disable it.
5. When you are finished, click the "Apply" button.
6. Reboot and test your new configuration.
   

An example of what can safely be turned off is QuickTime Task. Quicktime opens just fine without the Task program running all the time. iTunesHelper is also useless for iTunes users who do not use the iTunes store.