٢٠١٨/٧/٢٩ How to disable programs that run when you start Windows XP Home Edition or Windows Vista

How to disable programs that run when

you start Windows XP Home Edition or
Windows Vista
Applies to: Windows Vista Ultimate, Windows Vista Enterprise, Windows Vista Business, More

Summary

This article describes how to modify a list of programs that run when you
start Windows XP Home Edition or Windows Vista.

You can create and modify the list of programs that start automatically
when you start or log on to your computer. Some of these programs can be
set up to automatically configure themselves to run when you log on to
your computer.

More Information

To modify the list of programs that run when you start Windows, choose
one of the following methods.

Method 1: Use Windows Defender to modify the list of

programs that run when a Windows XP Home Edition-based
or a Windows Vista-based computer starts

Use Windows Defender to find out what programs are running when you
start Windows XP Home Edition or Windows Vista..
Windows XP Home Edition

Visit the following Microsoft Web site to downloaded Windows Defender:

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?
FamilyId=435BFCE7-DA2B-4A6A-AFA4-
F7F14E605A0D&displaylang=en&mg_id=10134
To use Windows Defender to disable programs in Windows XP Home
Edition, follow these steps:
1. Click Start, click All Programs, and then click Windows Defender.
2. Click Tools, and then click Software Explorer.
3. Click the application name in the Name column that you want to
disable, and then click Disable.

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Windows Vista

By default, Windows Defender is installed as part of the Windows Vista

installation.

How to use Defender to disable programs in Windows Vista

For more information about how to use Software Explorer in Windows

Defender, visit the following Microsoft Web site:
http://windowshelp.microsoft.com/Windows/en-us/Help/d360ec81-
0dd6-480f-a180-746dc6a12f001033.mspx
For more information about how to stop a program from running
automatically when Windows Vista starts, visit the following Microsoft Web
site:
http://windowshelp.microsoft.com/Windows/en-us/Help/b38d44d3-
c61f-411f-a069-8f189d2f914e1033.mspx
You can also use Windows Defender to scan for spyware or for other
potentially unwanted software. For more information about how to use
Windows Defender to scan for spyware and for other potentially unwanted
software, visit the following Microsoft Web site:
http://windowshelp.microsoft.com/Windows/en-us/Help/85aba529-
d717-49e9-ba01-cf892cdfff2e1033.mspx

Method 2: Use a registry key to modify the list of programs

that run when a Windows XP Home Edition-based computer
starts

Important This section, method, or task contains steps that tell you how to
modify the registry. However, serious problems might occur if you modify
the registry incorrectly. Therefore, make sure that you follow these steps
carefully. For added protection, back up the registry before you modify it.
Then, you can restore the registry if a problem occurs. For more information
about how to back up and restore the registry, click the following article
number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:
322756 How to back up and restore the registry in Windows
If you want to modify only the list of legacy programs that run at Startup,
use Registry Editor. To do this, follow these steps:

1. Start Registry Editor, and then locate one of the following registry keys:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Window
s\CurrentVersion\Run
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Window
s\CurrentVersion\RunOnce
2. If you do not want a program to run at Startup, find that particular
program, and then delete its entry from one of these registry keys.

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You can add entries here also. But we recommend that you use the
Windows Run at Startup policy setting to add programs that you want
to run at Startup.

References

For more information about how to modify the startup programs for
Windows XP Professional, click the following article number to view the
article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

314488 How to modify the Group Policy for programs that run at user
logon on a computer that is running Windows XP

For more information about other startup issues with Windows XP, click the
following article numbers to view the articles in the Microsoft Knowledge
Base:

147381 How to use system policies on a stand-alone computer

179365 Run, RunOnce, RunServices, RunServicesOnce and Startup

Last Updated: 17 Apr 2018

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