Vista: Use Defender to Monitor and Disable Startup Programs

Contributor Icon Contributed by shamanstears Date Icon February 2, 2007  
Tag Icon Tagged: Microsoft Vista

Defender is not only a great help in protecting your computer from malware, it also simplifies monitoring the programs that automatically start when Windows boots up. To do this…


1. Open Windows Defender.

2. Select Tools.

3. Click Software Explorer.

4. Select Startup Programs from the Category dropdown.

5. Review the programs in the left pane. Selecting a program will display information about it in the right pane.

6. To remove a program from startup, select the program from the left pane and click the Remove button. Use the Disable button for programs you want to temporarily stop from starting when Windows starts. To make them active again, simply select the program and click the Enable button.

After removing a program from startup, you probably will want to stop it from running during your current session. Simply select Currently Running Programs from the Category dropdown. Next, select the program and click the End Process button.

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Viewing 3 Comments

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    I recently bought an HP Laptop with Vista preinstalled on the machine. I got the laptop for college as well as to play Online games when I'm at the dorm. But when i run World of WarCraft it goes pretty slow and I was thinking before I buy/tamper with the computer parts I should turn off all unwanted startup/background running programs.

    So I found your post on google after i tried running "Mike Lin's" Startup Control Panel (Doesn't work with Vista). So now for the question: Your method only allows me to remove/disable certain programs and they are mainly the ones that i NEED to be running. Do you know any programs or any way to bypass the startup of iTunes and such programs because it doesn't give me the option for them.

    Is their any thing I can do with this system so that the response time is faster for better gaming?

    Laptop Model:
    - HP Pavilion dv6000 (RV009UA#ABA)
    Processor: AMD Turion(tm) 64 X2 Mobile Technology TL-56 1.80 GHz
    Memory (RAM): 958 MB
    System Type: 32-bit Operating System

    Graphics Card Information:
    - NVIDIA GeForce Go 6150
    Driver Version: 7.15.10.9746

    *Laptop has all current Vista Updates!
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    I am encountering a similar problem. I have a Sony Vaio running Vista with all updates installed. There are certain programs in my startup menu - iTunes, Quicktime and my TomTom software - which I cannot disable. They are listed in StartUp programs, but the buttons aren't enabled to disable them - if that makes sense!!
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    you need to run as administrator
 
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