How to Stop Windows 10 Apps From Launching at Startup
One of the most frustrating aspects of Windows is the ease with which applications can start up automatically when you turn on your PC, whether you need them to or not. Software programs such as Adobe Acrobat, iTunes, iCloud, and Spotify set themselves up to load as soon as you log into Windows.
Why is that a problem? Startup apps unnecessarily chew up memory and resources, potentially hampering your PC's performance. The more programs that launch at startup, the greater your PC is affected. There are certain types of programs that you do want to start automatically, such as antivirus and webcam software. However, many apps muscle their way into your startup routine with little or no reason.
Don't worry. You can fight back. Windows has long offered a way for you to view and disable your startup programs. In older versions of Windows, you’d open the System Configuration tool (msconfig) where you could see and deselect any programs you wanted to stop loading automatically. That option is no longer available in Windows 10. Instead, you can check out your startup programs in a couple of other ways.
You can go through the Settings screen, where you can see each app, its current status, and the effect if you opt to disable it from starting up automatically. Another option is to go through Task Manager, where you can scour the list of startup programs, research each specific program on the web to learn what it does, and then disable any apps you feel don't need to launch at startup.
If you have to run a program that gets kicked out of the startup process, you can still launch it manually from its Start menu or Start screen shortcut. Let's see how the process works and how you can nix certain startup apps.