How to Disable Or Change Startup Programs In Windows 10

By disabling unnecessary startup programs in Windows 10, you can greatly speed up your PC’s startup time. This also means that you make sure that only the applications that need to run are actually running, which is a great way to improve PC performance.

With Windows 10, it’s even easier to disable or change startup programs that open when you first turn on your PC. With this guide you’ll be minimizing your startup apps and speeding up your PC in no time.

Later, we’ll also explain how you can set up different apps or files to open on startup, in case you want to have everything you need ready as soon as you power up your PC.

How To Disable Startup Programs In Windows 10

To disable startup programs in Windows 10,

right click

the taskbar at the bottom of the screen and click

Task Manager

on the window that opens.

Next, click on the

Start-Up

tab at the top of the

task manager

window. Click on the

Status

box to list all of the programs that start when your computer boots.

You can now

right click

any app in this list and click

Disable

to stop it from opening when you start up your PC. You can also right click any app here to

Enable

it as well.

If you’re unsure about negative implications, don’t worry – none of these apps need to be enabled. Your Windows 10 PC will work perfectly fine even if you set every app in this list as disabled. However, when you start your PC, you’ll need to open these apps manually.

What Is The Program App In My Task Manager List?

As you disable startup programs in Windows 10, you may notice an app in your list named

Program

. Most of the time there’s nothing to worry about with this, but you can double check to make sure.

First, right click the

Name

tab within the task manager. Next, click

Command Line

in the new window that appears.

You will now be able to see the .exe file that’s related to this app. In my case, it was for

Microsoft Teams

so I had nothing to worry about. If it’s a program you don’t recognize, you can write the address that appears in Windows Explorer to locate it, but remove anything in the .exe section.

For example, if the program points to “C:\Program Files\Teams Installer\Teams.exe –checkinstall”, you should type

C:\Program Files\Teams Installer\

into Windows Explorer’s search field and press enter to locate it.

You can then choose to delete the software here. After that, you should run a comprehensive virus and malware scan. You can also follow this step for any software you recognize. If you’re curious, you can right click any program and click

Search Online

to quickly get a Google search result for the program.

Set Custom Apps To Run On Startup

You may notice that not all apps and programs appear in the start-up tab in Task Manager. If you’d like to set it so another program, file, or website opens on startup, you can follow the steps mentioned below.

To begin, press

Windows Key+R

to open the run command box. Next, type

shell:startup

and click

OK

.

You’ll be taken to a Windows Explorer window. Now, all you need to do is create a shortcut here for anything and it will open when your PC starts up. We’ll run you through some examples below.

Make Any App Start On Windows 10 Boot

How to Change Startup Programs on Your PC with Windows 7/8 - Is your computer running more slowly than it used to?... http://t.co/7ZhJTTANyV

— halen Thu Mar 06 01:00:06 +0000 2014

Press

Windows Key+R

.

Enter

shell:startup

and click

OK

.

Right click

in the Windows Explorer window.

Click

New

and then click

Shortcut

.

Click

Browse…

and locate any program you’d like.

Make sure you locate the

.exe

file.

Click

Next

, give your shortcut a name, then click

Finish

.

Alternatively, you can search for the .exe file on your PC and then copy and paste the address. To test that it works, double click the shortcut. If it opens, then it’ll also open when your PC starts.

How To Open A Website When Your PC Starts Up

Press

Windows Key+R

.

Enter

shell:startup

and click

OK

.

Right click

in the Windows Explorer window.

Click

New

and then click

Shortcut

.

Enter any address, including the https:// at the beginning.

Click

Next

, then

Finish

.

Double click the new shortcut link to make sure it works. It should open the website in your default browser.

You can use the same methods above to open any file on your computer. For example, you can create a shortcut that leads to an .mp3 file. The file will then play with your default music player as soon as your turn on your PC.

At any point you can delete or disable startup programs in Windows 10 to stop them from starting when your PC first turns on. Any shortcuts you add here can also slow down how long it takes for your PC to boot up properly.

There is no doubt that these two methods are very useful for controlling which applications are launched at startup. I hope that through the tips in this article, you can find the right balance and increase the startup speed without reducing work efficiency.