How to disable startup programs?

[zboy2854]

Hello all,

There are some programs that automatically load and run in the background when NT starts up and show up in the taskbar. I'd like to disable some of them so they don't load at bootup. I know in Windows 98 one could run msconfig.exe and simply uncheck the programs you don't want to load up. Where in NT can I accomplish the same thing? Thanks in advance.

[Dwharf]

You can obviously clear out some programs from the Starup folders, both the 'All Users' and the individual users profile.

The next step is to check the programs in the registry. if you load regedit/regedt32 and check HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Windows\Current Version\ there are three subfolders called Run, RunOnce and RunOnceEx. In these are further programs that are initiated to run on startup.

The final place is Services. many programs or Application support utils run as services, so depending on what you're trying to stop, it may be worth looking at disabling a service or two.

Any playing about with the registry or servcies can seriously screw your machine, so be sure that you absolutely do not need a program or service before you remove it. Is worth taking a 'pre-messing about with' backup of the registry keys that you want to change so that you have some chance of going back if things go horribly wrong.

hope this helps, D.