I often get questions about software that runs automatically. For example, when my Mom first got her computer, she had a bunch of software loading automatically, and she absolutely hated it. Mom's situation is not unusual. The usual response is "how do I make it stop?!"
Assuming you may want to keep the software, but just want it to stop running automatically, you need to check your startup settings. The goal is to figure out how Windows is making the offending software start. There are several places you can check:
* the Startup folder in the Start Menu (accessible from the Taskbar Properties dialog box).
* the Autoexec.bat file
* the Config.sys file
* the Win.ini file in the [windows] section; look at the entries next to "run=" and "load="
* the following Registry keys:
- HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run
- HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run
- HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\RunServices
So now you are wondering how you look at all this stuff. I've already talked about how you can modify your Startup folder (see www.cc-tips.com to find archived articles). To look at your system files, you need to use a text editor and to work with the registry you need to use RegEdit. Note that if you decide to change or delete anything, be sure you make a backup of the file or the registry first!
To edit your system files:
1. Choose Start|Run, type Notepad.exe, and press the Enter key.
2. Choose File|Open and type C:\Autoexec.bat (or C:\Config.sys or C:\Windows\Win.ini, depending on which file you want to look at) and click Open.
3. Check the contents of the file to see what it's running. Software programs generally end in .EXE. In the Win.ini file, check the "load=" and "run=" lines.
To look at the Registry keys:
Choose Start|Run, type RegEdit.exe, and press the Enter key.
You see an Explorer-like window. For example to find, HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run, you double-click the HKEY_CURRENT_USER entry so the subkeys appear. Double-click Software and so on down the hierarchy to get to the right place in the Registry. You can see the contents of the key in the right-hand pane.
However, one caveat: if you aren't familiar with the registry, you should get someone to help you. Looking doesn't hurt anything, but messing around with the registry or system files can be dangerous, so be sure you have a backup before you go wild changing or deleting anything.
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