Windows® 7 Bible

Chapter 13. Customizing Startup Options

IN THIS CHAPTER

Understanding applications and services

Starting programs automatically

Preventing programs from auto-starting

Managing services

Bypassing the login page

A computer is basically a machine that's designed to do one thing: run programs. There are more than 100,000 different programs that can run on your computer. Nobody owns them all or needs them all. But there are certainly many to choose from.

Your computer already has many programs installed on it. Many are programs that you can start at will from icons on the Start menu and All Programs menu. Some programs start automatically when you log in. Often, these programs run in a window, as an icon on the taskbar, or both.

Another type of program starts automatically as soon as you start your computer. These are referred to as services, and services are most often part of the Windows operating system itself or programs that control hardware or other underlying functions. Services generally don't have program windows on your desktop or taskbar buttons. In fact, you would likely never know that services existed unless you went looking for them.

This chapter is about controlling exactly which programs and services do, and don't, start automatically when you first start your computer and Windows. By controlling these programs, you can streamline the Windows startup and fix problems with performance or function.

First Things First

First, I need to make a distinction between application programs ...