Start-up programs can get annoying when you don’t really use them as soon as your computer boots. Besides, if your PC is getting old, startup programs can slow down the booting. We’ve all been there — you’re on a deadline, need some critical work done and you boot up your Windows PC to find it’s taking forever because a certain application is looking for an update or has already started downloading one. App windows open up in succession, and by the time you get them to close, you’ve already wasted some time. Having multiple apps running simultaneously at start-up can slow down your PC drastically, and occupy RAM.

Fortunately, there are ways to tackle this issue and below we’ve listed three ways that’ll help you disable start-up programs in Windows 10 as well as older versions.

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Disable start-up program in Windows via Settings

Go to your PCs settings via the start menu and follow the steps mentioned below.

Step 1: From the Settings page, click on Apps.Step 2: On the leftmost pane, click on Startup.

Step 3: The Startup menu has a list of applications that can be configured to start as soon as you log in to your computer. You can view the impact each application will have on start-up, and also have the applications sorted based on name, status and effect. Here, you can use the toggle buttons beside the respective apps to change which applications will automatically run at start-up. Make sure any app you don’t want running at startup is turned Off.

If for any reason you don’t see the Startup option in Settings, there is an alternative.

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Disabling via Task Manager

Step 1: Right-click on the Start button and select Task Manager.Step 2: In the Task Manager, select More Details. This will reveal a set of tabs. Step 3: Navigate to the Startup tab. Here, you can find a categorical list of start-up impact an application might have, and also their present status. Step 4: Select that app you want to change start-up permissions for, and click on Disable.

If both the options mentioned above aren’t working for you, there is another alternative that requires a third-party tool. Read on to know more.

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Disabling via CCleaner

If you’re running an older version of Windows, or want to rely on an external application to do the job for you, PC-cleaning utility CCleaner has a tool that can help you manage start-up programs. You can find the download link here.

Once you have the application installed, follow these simple steps.

Open the CCleaner software and navigate to the Tools menu.
Navigate to the Startup dialog box and click on it.
The Enabled column reveals all applications that have the start-up configuration turned on. To turn it off, select a program in the list, and click Disable.

CCleaner doesn’t explicitly ask users to perform a restart of the computer after this process, but it is wise to do so.

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