How does one stop a program from executing at startup? I'd especially like to know how to do it through the registry editor (regedit) thanks!

Hi,
Normally the programs that run at startup have their entries in these Registry areas:-

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\RunOnce

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\RunServices

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\RunOnce

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\RunServices

Navigate to these branches of Registry, and there in the right-pane you will be able to see the list of Programs (with the paths for their files) which run at startup. If you want to disable/remove an item from starting up, you can right-click on the required Program and click "Delete".

Note:- Before making any changes to Registry, please make a back of it. You can do this by going to File Menu > Export Registry (Registry Menu in Win98). Then type a filename and save the file.

I think running msconfig is a better choice where you can uncheck the startup items to stop them from loading ... and if you need them back .. you can simply check them again .... and if you want to stop the startup services too .. you can also do it with msconfig.

Just type msconfig in the run command / dos prompt and see the last two tabs ... services and startup items.

you can also take suff out of startup in the start all programs menu

I have the same problem. Each time I go to log on the internet a home page appears that is not Yahoo. What do I do? Thanks. Vrobins

I need to change the browser's home page on my computer. I've tried tool, internet ooptions and it is not changing. HELP!Va. Robins

Hi,
This is Windows Tips'n'Tricks section
To solve your problem, download HijackThis and unzip it to dedicated folder (like C:\HijackThisFolder\hijackthis.exe).
Then run it and click the button Do a System scan and save log file. HijackThis will perform a scan and saves the log file as hijackthis.log in the same folder where it is installed and it also opens the file automatically.

Next, start a new topic in Viruses, Spyware & other nasties section by clicking the "New Thread" button in that page, and then post the complete contents of the HijackThis log file.

the thing is that from msconfig ,when you customize from the startup tab which programs to run as soon as windows start, you put windows into a "selective startup "....then next time you start your pc a window pops out telling you that you have used mscongif and that you run in a selective mode. In the same message it sais that if you want to run in a "normal startup" you have to undo the modifications that you did last time with msconfig (which results in running again the programs you wanted to exclude in the fisrt place!!) or to run mscongif every time you start , so in other words you make the changes and then you undo them i.e. no difference..
therefore is better to delete the registries from "run" with regedit.

Thats why i dont use MSConfig. I always use RegCleaner it has a Option(Startup) from there i remove unwanted startup entries. Reg cleaner shows entries which MSConfig doesn't show. And u dont even need to restart the computer nor u have to face the selective startup problem.