A few weeks back, I posted a tip on how to stop programs from starting up by deleting them from the Start menu: Stop Programs from Starting Automatically. Several readers used the tip but still had unwanted programs starting and slowing their system. They asked how they can stop those programs that are not in the Start menu.

There is one sure way to stop programs from starting automatically and it involves editing the registry. Editing the registry requires care, a mistake here can cause serious harm to your system.

CAUTION: Edit the registry with care.

Click Start then Run. Type regedit and then find this registry key:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run

Once you locate the Run key, look in the right pane for programs that run at startup. Do not remove any entry if you are not sure what it is. Right click on entries that are to be deleted and then select delete.

Click the film icon below to see the video on how to remove programs in the Run folder of the registry.

Once the registry is edited, reboot the computer and check to see if the you have deleted the programs. Do this by opening the Task Manager, pressing the Ctrl-Alt-Del keys at the same time, and select the Processes tab and check the running processes.

As you can see, it is easy to edit the registry and remove the entries that open programs at start up. Editing the registry can be very usefull and powerfull. Just make sure you know what you are doing in the registry. The registry is not a place to experiment.

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