Regardless of the automatization we are given today, some things should be known without it. That way, you would know how to solve a problem when automatization is not available.
In this article, I’m going to teach you how to change your startup by changing the Registry. Since you can mess up pretty bad, I suggest reading the prompts thoroughly. Don’t change or delete values unless you are sure what are you doing. But don’t worry though, if you follow these guidelines, you won’t make a mistake.
The first thing to do is to launch regedit.exe, the Windows Registry Editor. In your Start Menu, there is a Run command. Type regedit.exe and press Enter. If you don’t see it (this happens often on Vista systems, press Win + R. (Win is a key with Windows logo, usually next to CTRL). You will need administrative permissions to open regedit.exe.
The first time you open the regedit, you see Computer and 5 HKEYs (HK): Classes_Root (CR), Current_User (CU), Local_Machine (LM), Users (U), Current_Config(CC). The thing we are looking for is in HKEY_CURRENT_USER (HKCU) and HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE (HKLM).
First, let’s expand HKLM. You will find several keys (presented as folders), and only one interests us: SOFTWARE. Expand it. Now, you will find many, many program or company names. Here programs store some of their information, needed to run properly. Find Microsoft (not Windows) and expand it. Now, look for Windows and expand it. In it, the first or second should be CurrentVersion (not Current Version,with a space in between).
And you have arrived where you need to. Look for Run and RunOnce keys. In them, you will find values (usually represented as scraps of paper with ‘ab’ written on them) related to startup. There you can see programs launched at the startup for every user (e. g. antivirus, Java, etc.).
I suggest adding this location to Favorites menu, as HKLM/Run and HKLM/RunOnce.
Hey, we are not over yet. You need to find the same thing under HKEY_CURRENT_USER (HKCU). Once again: Software -> Microsoft -> Windows -> CurrentVersion -> Run/RunOnce. Add them to Favorites as HKCU/Run and HKCU/Runonce. Here you can see processes being run at startup when you open your account.
Now you know where the startup is, I have a word of warning: if you aren’t sure what a value represents, don’t delete it. And of course, you can add your own values (first make sure there don’t already exist in both HKLM/Run and HKCU/Run).
When you make any changes to this part of registry, you need to reboot your computer. And if something bad happens, don’t blame me — you made the mistake of not listening to me.
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