How to Change Startup Programs on Your Computer

September 2022 · 2 minute read

This wikiHow teaches you how to stop programs from automatically starting up when you turn on your computer. You can do this on both Windows and Mac computers. Open Start . Click the Windows logo in the bottom-left corner of the screen.

Method 1 of 2:

On Windows

  • Picture 1 of How to Change Startup Programs on Your Computer Open Start Picture 2 of How to Change Startup Programs on Your Computer . Click the Windows logo in the bottom-left corner of the screen.
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    Type task manager into Start. This will search your computer for the Task Manager app.

  • Picture 4 of How to Change Startup Programs on Your Computer Click Task Manager. It's the computer-shaped icon at the top of the Start window. Doing so will open Task Manager.
  • You can also press Ctrl+⇧ Shift+Del to open Task Manager directly.
  • Task Manager may take a few seconds to finish loading.
  • Picture 5 of How to Change Startup Programs on Your Computer

    Click the Startup tab. This tab is at the top of the Task Manager window.

  • Picture 6 of How to Change Startup Programs on Your Computer Select a program. Click the name of a program that you want to disable.
  • You can see a program's impact on your computer's startup speed to the right of the program's name (e.g., a high-impact program has "High" to the right of its name).
  • Picture 7 of How to Change Startup Programs on Your Computer Click Disable. It's in the bottom-right corner of the window. Doing so will prevent the program from turning on the next time that you start your computer.
  • If you want to turn back on a disabled program, you can select it and then click Enable in the bottom-right corner instead.

    • EXPERT TIP

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    Luigi Oppido

    Computer Repair Technician & Owner, Pleasure Point Computers Luigi Oppido is the Owner and Operator of Pleasure Point Computers in Santa Cruz, California. Luigi has over 25 years of experience in general computer repair, data recovery, virus removal, and upgrades. Picture 9 of How to Change Startup Programs on Your Computer

    Luigi Oppido
    Computer Repair Technician & Owner, Pleasure Point Computers

    Expert Variation: To change the startup programs on a PC, hit the Windows key and R to pull up the Run dialog box. Under there, type in 'MS CONFIG.' That takes you to the System Configuration utility. From there, go to the startup tab, and on Windows 10 you'll have another link just inside that tab. Inside that link, you'll have a second window with a list of every program that starts up on the machine. You can then right-click and disable the software, and you can also re-enable it there if you need to.

    Micah Soto Micah Soto

    Update 04 March 2020

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