- First, if you’re sure you don’t want the program at all, see if you can uninstall if from the “Add/Remove Programs” control panel. This is the best way to do it, since it will make use of any stored information about extra files that were placed on your PC at the time of initial installation.
- Look to see if it’s being launched from a shortcut in the start menu. Look for the folder corresponding to the “Programs, Startup” folder in your start menu. For example, on my NT box, this is:
C:\WINNT\Profiles\karelsf\Start Menu\Programs\Startup
I think in Win9x this would be in:
C:\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\Startup
depending on usernames, etc (I don’t have win9x on any of my computers). Also look in the startup folder for “All Users”, on NT this is in:
C:\WINNT\Profiles\All Users\Start Menu\Programs\Startup
Any shortcuts in those folders get run upon startup. To get rid of them, delete the shortcut.
On older systems, there may still be items getting launched out of the old initialization files from DOS or Windows 3.x. Look in:
- config.sys
- autoexect.bat
- win.ini (look for lines like “Load=” and “Run=”)
- boot.ini
- system.ini
- not sure of this one winstart.bat in the windows folder
These files can be edited using any text editor
Look in the registry under the following keys:
· HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run
· HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run
· HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\RunOnce
· HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\RunOnce
· HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\RunServices
· HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\RunServices
· HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\RunServicesOnce
· HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\RunServicesOnce
· HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\RunOnce\Setup
· HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon\Userinit
· HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Windows
The registry can be edited using the command “REGEDIT”.
MORE INFORMATION on Run, RunOnce, RunServices, RunServicesOnce and Startup
Under Microsoft Windows 95, Windows 98, and Windows Millennium Edition (Me) where all keys are supported, the keys are loaded in the following order:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\RunServicesOnce
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\RunServices
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\RunOnce
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run
StartUp Folder
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\RunOnce
With the exception of the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\…\RunOnce key, all keys and their entries are loaded asynchronously. Therefore, all entries in the RunServices and RunServicesOnce keys can potentially run at the same time.
Entries in the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\…\RunOnce key are loaded synchronously in an undefined order.
Because the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\…\RunOnce key is loaded synchronously, all of its entries must finish loading before the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\…\Run, HKEY_CURRENT_USER\…\Run, HKEY_CURRENT_USER\…\RunOnce, and Startup Folder entries can be loaded.
The RunServicesOnce and RunServices keys are loaded before the user logs into Windows 95, Windows 98, and Windows Me. Because these two keys run asynchronously with the Logon dialog box, they can continue to run after the user has logged on. However, since HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\…\RunOnce must load synchronously, its entries will not begin loading until after the RunServicesOnce and RunServices keys have finished loading.
Because of different system configurations (such as a computer that is configured to automatically log on), any application that is dependant upon other applications that are executed under these keys having completed must be prepared to wait until these applications are complete. Other than this exception, the above description applies to Microsoft Windows NT 4.0, Windows 2000, and Windows XP.
References
specific
http://support.microsoft.com/support/kb/articles/Q174/0/18.ASP
http://support.microsoft.com/support/kb/articles/Q179/3/65.ASP
http://registry.winguides.com/display.php/109/
http://209.155.180.149/win98-54.html
http://www.chami.com/tips/windows/010397W.html
general
http://www.annoyances.org/
http://registry.winguides.com/
http://support.microsoft.com/directory/default.asp
Posted by Dablu in Operating Systems