How to Stop Pesky Apps From Loading When Windows Boots
When was the last time you sat down and thought about how many apps are automatically launched when Windows 10 starts up on your desktop or laptop? You probably can’t remember, because in fact most people don’t. But you have to do it because you don’t need a bunch of unnecessary applications consuming your system resources for no reason. If your computer is not powerful enough, you only make the situation worse. And at the very least, having a lot of background apps will lead to an increase in Windows 10 loading.
How to view (and change) which applications are running on your PC
Open Windows 10 Task Manager by clicking the Start button, typing task and selecting the Task Manager option. Light. From there click on the Startup tab and you will see a nice long list of every little application that loads when your system boots:
As tempting as it may be to simply start out of mass items, you will want to strategize on what you are stopping. It’s not an exact science, but here are some tips to get you started:
- If an app looks like a miniature app that helps you launch a larger app that you don’t use all the time (like iTunes Helper or Spotify), it’s probably safe to disable it.
- If an app needs to run all the time in order to get the most out of it (Dropbox, Razer Synapse, etc.), then you should probably allow it to launch at startup.
- If an app makes your life a little more convenient by loading in the background (Steam, Battle.net, etc.), take it on a case-by-case basis. Do you really need background downloads for game updates, for example, or do you feel good if an app only downloads those updates when you launch it?
- If you’re unsure – because an app has a really weird name, or you just can’t tell what it is or what it does – use your favorite search engine to get more information on what it is, what it does, and if it really is. … necessary. Windows 10 makes this even easier because you can right-click any application in Task Manager and select Search the Web to do just that.
- For a little help, you can also install an app like Should I Remove It , which uses the “wisdom of the crowd (and of course our technical experts)” to help you figure out what you can safely opt out of and what you might want. keep.
My startup list
To start, here’s a quick rundown of some of the various apps I’ve enabled and disabled on my PC (and why).
Included
- Battle.net – just because I don’t like waiting for game updates before I can play. I could have kept this from loading on startup and missed almost nothing.
- bzbui.exe – Sounds funny , but it’s actually just Backblaze, my always-on backup tool. If it didn’t start on startup, I would really get stuck.
- EarTrumpet – I use it in place of the built-in volume controls in Windows 10, so it should work when Windows starts up too.
- Dropbox is the same as Backblaze; if it doesn’t start, it doesn’t sync files to and from the cloud, so it might load every time I start my computer.
- Steam is the same as Battle.net
- Twitch – I have this launch at startup so I can keep track of any updates to my World of Warcraft add-ons. I only do this to remind myself to update my addons, as otherwise, it won’t take very long to do if you just run the application whenever on your computer
- Slack – so I can communicate with Team Lifehacker always and forever
Defective
- Anything Adobe related – I really don’t need help getting Acrobat, PhotoShop or any related updates up and running.
- Anything and Anything iTunes – Same – it’s never a problem to just download iTunes when I need it, so why run some weird “helper” app in the background?
- Spotify – Similar to iTunes, I can just launch this when I need it.
- Macrium Reflect – I love the app, but I don’t often need access to this disk imaging tool so there is no need to load it on Windows startup.