How does autorun Windows 7 work? How can I turn it off?

Sometimes Windows 7 autostart should be cleaned from some programs in order to reduce the consumption of resources and speed up the computer. In addition, this way you can shorten the boot period of the system during power-up.

How to configure Windows 7 autostart so that it does not interfere with the PC?

Let's start with the fact that some programs immediately after installation put themselves in a folder Autorun and activated when the computer is turned on. And the user does not ask permission for such actions. Let's look at where autorun in Windows 7 is located and what are the ways to remove from it those applications that we do not need. But remember that you should take special care, because certain programs are needed directly for the operation of the operating system - they are called service ones. Disabling such applications negatively affects the functionality of the operating system, as well as its security.

Using "Start"

It's very easy to start Windows 7 autostart by removing unwanted programs from the Startup folder in the Start menu. This method is probably familiar to you - if you have been using your computer for a long time, you could accidentally discover it. However, we will explain in more detail.

Go to "Start", open "All Programs", and then find the folder "Startup". The programs that are there are started when the computer is turned on. To prevent application data from starting, you can simply delete it from the specified folder.

Configuring Windows 7 Autostart with MSConfig

MSConfig is a standard program that is present in the operating system by default. Run it fairly simple. Open the "Start" menu, in the search line type: "msconfig". The program will be immediately found, we just need to click on its shortcut to start.

If for some reason in the "Start" there is no search bar, you can press the Win + R shortcut to launch the required window. Enter the "msconfig" into it, click "Ok". So, the MSConfig program is running. Go to the "Startup" tab. We remove the checkmarks, turning off unnecessary programs. If you do not know what a particular program is responsible for, then it's best not to disconnect it.

Click "Ok", then we are prompted to restart the computer, but we can not do this at the moment. This program is very convenient, but it is not functional enough, because it does not allow you to disable any programs from autorun. For this reason, it is reasonable to consider a couple of other ways that will allow you to configure Windows 7 autostart according to your preferences.

"Manual work" with the register

Start Registry Editor. To do this, press the "Win + R" key combination or "Search" type the word "regedit". On the screen there will be an incomprehensible, "terrible" window with abracadabra instead of words, but there is nothing to be afraid of. Among all the folders you can find a couple of autorun sections - a common registry that is used by all users (MACHINE), and a personal registry created for a specific user (USER).

We need to get to the folders "Run", in turn unfolding the folder tree. They contain files that are included with the operating system - we can easily remove them by clicking on the right mouse button and selecting "Delete". You can first go to the first address, clear it, and then do the second one.

We use special programs

Now we will discuss a special program Autoruns. It is distributed free of charge, however it is very powerful and functional. Thanks to this solution, you can configure autostart in a few clicks. The application is easily located on the Internet on the official website of the developer. Note that the English version is available, and it is easy to understand without knowing a foreign language.

The uploaded archive has the extension ".zip" - it can be easily unpacked by any of the archivers. There are 4 files in the folder. We are interested in "autoruns.exe", we will launch it. During the first launch, we will be asked to accept the license agreement, which we will do by clicking on the "Agree" button.

So, the program starts and displays the "Everything" tab, which, in fact, is a list of all the autorun objects. To avoid getting lost, there are tabs on which it is all grouped separately: Explorer, Drivers, Winlog. Further - everything is intuitive.

A point over i will be another interesting feature provided by the operating system - "Auto-start Windows 7 disk", which guarantees usability and greatly simplifies the work with various types of removable media. When you start the disk, a special window appears on the screen in which the system lists all the operations that can be performed with it.