How to tidy up your windows autostart
May 17, 2017 (updated 3 months ago) by Chemtable Software
In our article about removing unused programs, we explained that this also helps to wipe out unnecessary elements from Windows autostart and free some resources. There are applications you don’t use very often, but they do launch with Windows and stay in memory all the time, waiting for your commands. Simply put, they needlessly eat up the resources of the computer.
If your computer has programs you use rarely, it is worth checking to see if they start with Windows. The better option for such applications is to launch them only on those rare occasions you really need them. This way, you can save a decent amount of system resources for other tasks.
To do this, open the Startup Applications tool in Reg Organizer. There, you can see all the programs that start with the system. Look for programs you don’t use too often.
If such programs are found, you can temporarily disable their autorun by toggling the switch from the “Enabled” position to the “Disabled” position (see picture above). After that Reg Organizer will block the launch of the selected program. You can also disable autorun in the settings of these programs.
If some item does not look familiar to you, the best decision is to skip it. Alternatively, you can read more about it on the Internet. Right-click the item and select Search Online in the context menu.
Device drivers and protection software are best left alone, so just skip them.
Auxiliary tools
The right part of the list has a column named “Disable/Delay Frequency”.
It displays two percentage gauges that display the percent of Reg Organizer/Soft Organizer users who turn off or suspend the startup of the selected program. The lower the percentage, the fewer users turn off or suspend starting this application. Conversely, the higher the percentage, the more users turn off the startup of the application completely or suspend it.
The suspended autostart function allows you to suspend launching certain applications for a specified time period. Common practice is to suspend autostart of version update modules of various programs.
This way, they will start after all other programs have loaded, giving the resource priority to more important applications.
The diagram in the lower part of the window visually represents the result. Be sure to take into account that these data come from the operating system and may take a while to update. Sometimes, the system boots up a few seconds longer directly after you turned off some program. This is normal.
Two or three reboots may be required for Windows to rearrange its internal autostart mechanisms.
Also, Autorun Organizer has the embedded virus checking of autostart items via the VirusTotal.com service that verifies files with all major antiviruses. If some autostart element is reported positive by some antivirus, Autorun Organizer notifies you about that.
The information about virus checks is displayed in the lower part of the window, on the information panel, and is available after you select an element. Virus positive items are colored red in the list.