Removing programs from the run section in the registry can sometimes be a pain, even for the computer tech that has a basic understanding of computers.
Removing programs that start when windows boots up, can dramatically speed up you computer boot up time, and speed while working on it.
A word of advice, editing the Windows Registry can be risky; I would recommend going through the Microsoft Configuration Utility (the msconfig menu) first.
WARNING: Changes to the Registry occur instantaneous, that means that there is no save button or undo choice under the edit menu. Again I warned you; only edit the registry if you feel comfortable enough.
elamigosam.com is not responsible for any damage caused to any computer.
With that said, lets get going.
Go to the start menu and select run.
on a windows 7 machine click the “Search programs and files” search bar in the start menu.
in the run dialog box or the search bar, enter “regedit”
click Yes when the “User Account Control” dialog box appears, in windows 7 or Vista.
The Registry Editor window appears.
Here we are going to dig in the following order.
Computer\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run
to open a folder just ‘double click’ or click the small arrow at the left.
In this sample, we can see that I have the AVG9_TRAY to start every time windows starts, that is the program to access the antivirus.
In the Run Folder is where we are going to find the list of programs that run when windows starts.
If we Right Click we can see that we have more options.
By clicking in the Delete option, we can delete that entry, and next time windows starts, that program will not be loaded.
Editing the registry is done for the purpose to edit special settings on different programs. Also to sometimes fix program issues or bugs.
Another reason to edit this portion of the registry, is to fix those annoying error messages that came up when windows starts saying that it is missing some files. Simply write down the error message and go the this part of the registry and find that entry and delete it.
This sample image was taken from a new install of windows 7, in a old installation of windows, xp vista or 7 there might be some other programs.
When we find a entry that we don’t know what is it, we can simply search it on Google or some other search engine, to see if it is something windows needs or not.
Good luck and have fun with you computer.
sam
