Whenever you restart your Windows 10 PC, some programs installed on your computer start automatically. The startup programs are usually applications that you use frequently and are generally not resource hungry. Applications like Skype, VPNs, Internet Download manager, sketch/painting apps are among the few that usually autostart with every reboot. This is also true for other versions of Windows OS.
Now if you want to disable startup programs in Windows 10, here is how to do it. You don’t need to edit any registry key or values, but use the Task Manager to do it.
1. Disable Startup Programs using Task Manager
Open the Task Manager from the taskbar. Right-click on Taskbar and select Task Manager.
The Task manager window will open the Processes tab by default. Click the Startup tab from the top.
In the Startup tab, all the startup programs are listed.
The Status column shows if the program is enabled or disabled. You may also want to check the Startup Impact tab that shows how much impact this program has on your PC if it is kept enabled. Programs with Low Impacts are not of concern.
Select the program you want to disable and click on Disable button.
That’s it. You have successfully disabled Startup programs in Windows 10. If you want to enable any startup program in future, open the Startup tab, select the program and click Enable button.
My Startup Program is Not Listed in Task Manager?
If the startup up program is not listed in the startup tab of Task manager, here is how to disable any startup program from Services.
For this tutorial, I am going to disable Hotspot Shield VPN from Startup programs. You can follow these steps disable any startup programs in Windows 10.
Open the Task Manager.
In the process tab, find Hotspot Shield and see if it is running ( optional).
Next, click the Services tab and click on Open Services (bottom left of the window).
In Services, scroll down and find “Hotspot shield services”. Right-click on it and select Properties.
Click the drop-down menu for Startup Type and select Manual.
Click Apply and OK to save the changes.
2. Disable Startup Programs From Settings
The latest version of Windows 10 comes with a startup programs management app “Startup Apps” built-into the Settings.
To access it, click Start and select Setting (Gear Icon).
In the Settings window, type Startup in the Search bar and open Startup Apps option from the results.
Under Startup Apps, you can disable any startup program by toggling the little blue switch.
3. Disable Startup Programs Using CCleaner
If you use CCleaner utility on your Windows 10 PC, you can also use the tool to disable startup programs as well.
Open CCleaner.
Click on Tools icon (left panel).
Select the Startup tab. On the right side, CCleaner will list all the startup programs currently enabled on your PC.
Select the programs one by one and click on the Disable button.
The changes will be saved when you restart your PC next time.
What Startup Programs to Disable?
If you are not sure what startup programs you should disable, take help of the Impact tab as mentioned earlier.
In the Startup tab, check the Startup Impact column. Any program with High Impact is most probably the program that you want to disable from the startup program list. Programs with None and Low impact status can be left enabled.
Wrapping Up!
The Startup Programs in Windows 10 can be helpful if you have a decent PC with at least 4GB of RAM that can handle the sudden load during the startup. These programs do help the users by starting automatically after every start.
However, Windows 10 computers with a low amount of RAM and an entry-level processor may get overwhelmed with startup programs after the restart and make the computer slower. So, it is only sensible to disable startup programs in Windows 10 using this guide.
Do let us know if you prefer to keep startup programs enabled or disabled and If enabled, which programs you use the most in the comments.
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