How can you change your startup programs in Windows 7?

On start up several programs start up that I would rather not have starting up and I would like to be able to change this while also getting some programs I would like to open on start up to do so.

Solution 1:

Have a look in the startup folder in your start menu: Start > All Programs > Startup

If you right click on the folder in your start menu and choose "Open" you'll launch an explorer window that will show shortcuts to some of the apps that launch at startup. You can add and remove shortcuts here as you see fit.

This will take care of programs that launch, if you are after processes that launch at startup, you need to look in MSConfig (Start Menu and search for MSConfig) and look in the startup tab. Worth doing some research into processes you disable in MS Config, you can cause problems if you don't know what you're doing.

If unsure stick to playing round with shortcuts in the startup folder.

Solution 2:

Autoruns for Windows is another useful tool, using this it is possible to see (almost) all programs which start up when Windows starts up and this is usually more than the content of the "Startup" program group as there are other places which programs start from.

The usual caveats apply and you need to be careful in what you disable using this tool!