Remove old entries from MSConfig Startup

Some programs ask you if you want to start every time when Windows starts while others do not ask but still add an entry to an autostart location. This is most of the time not that useful unless you do use the software a lot. I can only think of security products that would fall into that category. Makes no sense to always start the antivirus software after Windows has loaded.

We all know that we can prevent autostarts by using the msconfig utility which ships with every Microsoft operating system. The problem that arises here is that although the programs are not autostarted anymore they still exist in the list which looks rather messy because it is growing over time. It does not make much sense to keep them in the list if you disabled them from the list.

All of the useless items can be easily removed by using two methods:

Registry (Regedit)
Software MSConfig Cleanup

Using the Registry:

As usual, please backup your registry first.

Go to Start –> Run –> Regedit
Open Regedit and go to HKEY_Local_Machine/Software/Microsoft/Sharedtools/MSconfig
Notice that there’s a ‘StartupFolder’ and ‘StartupReg’
Delete unused entries from those folders by comparing used and unused items through MSConfig.

Using MSConfig CleanUp:

The process of cleaning up old and unused startup items in msconfig is much easier with the free software MSConfig Cleanup. The software will automatically display all programs found and you can check all the programs in the list that you want to remove.

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Author: Martin Brinkmann, Monday May 28, 2007 -
Tags:autostarts, clean msconfig, msconfig, remove autostart entries

Responses so far:

1. Rico says:

   May 29, 2007 at 1:01 am

   I’ve been using StartupCPL for years now and love being able to control what loads on startup and what doesn’t. I check it often, especially after installing new software to see what’s been added to my startup configuration. You can find it here:
   StartupCPL

   Reply
2. FourPart says:

   October 17, 2009 at 12:51 am

   MSConfig CleanUp did the job brilliantly.
   No bells or whistles. Just a simple software. that does exactly what it says on the tin.
   Quick & easy, with no messing about.

   Reply