Getting Control of Auto-starting Programs

Subscriber E. Dorinda asked via my Terry's Computer Tips blog:

When I installed Skype (and other free downloads like stickies) they automatically startup when my computer goes through the startup process. How can I stop this? I would like to choose when to use these programs and not have them start automatically.

Fortunately, that's one of the easy answers, even if the individual program does not offer you the option to control its startup via its preferences or options.

Controlling startup programs is one of the main functions of the free WinPatrol program, about which I've written a number of times. It lets you disable, or remove, auto-starting programs to keep them from starting automatically. You can also move programs to its delayed startup tab so that they start at the time you specify after the boot process starts, e.g., 5 minutes later.

You can download WinPatrol at www.winpatrol.com.

Although the basic program is free, there is a huge value to the paid version WinPatrol Plus.

While the Plus ads only a couple additional capabilities, but it gives access to the WinPatrol Plus information database to tell you about the programs — what they do, are they safe, should you remove them, etc.

I've written about WinPatrol and WinPatrol a number of times. You can find all the articles by searching for WinPatrol using the searchbox at the bottom of this page.

Related articles:

• Controlling Programs That Start Automatically
• Speeding Up the Windows Boot Process
• Free Software Review: WinPatrol
• A Look Inside WinPatrol and WinPatrol Plus
• WinPatrol for System Control and Protection
• Computer Running Slowly

Copyright © 2010 Terry A. Stockdale. All rights reserved.