Windows 10 is the most popular and used Operating System in the world for a multitude reasons, and its also free. With that being said, because windows is such a capable operating system that has a lot of features and functions, it can be hard for less tech-savvy users to fully utilize it and fix common problems. Today we are going to focus on controlling your start up applications on windows 10.
Windows OS have this really nifty feature that can control which apps will start automatically when your computer is powered on. Its useful for starting up these certain essential apps. Without it, you will have to click on an app manually to start it. Its especially tedious when you have so many apps you want to use right away after you power up your lovely desktop.
“What kind of applications?” you might ask. Mostly they will run in background and give you notification when something happens, like the antivirus apps. Mcafee, Kaspersky, AVG, or whichever antivirus program you chose, it will have the “background monitoring” function. This scans your computer’s activities for any malware. When it found something suspicious, it will send a notification asking you what to do.
How to Controll Windows 10 Start-up Apps
Step 1. Open the task manager
This step is quick and easy, simple hit CTRL+Shift+Esc. Then you will be greeted by this sleek-looking window. Worry not, it will mostly be your savior in various situations.
Now, press “More Details” in bottom left corner.
And now your task manager will look like this:
Now it looks hundred times scarier and ominous-looking. Do not be intimidated. Its just a very detailed list of your computer’s thoughts. It also shows the rough display of your computer’s resource usage, but that’s not what we are looking for.
Step 2. Navigate to startup tab on your task manager
Now click the “startup” tab located in the middle top of the window.
Your task manager will look like this:
This is what we are looking for. This window contains a list of apps that will or will not run when your computer starts up.
For example, see that Kone Pure Monitor Application? Its the macro app for my mouse. As you can see, the current status is “enabled”, it means the program will start automatically when my computer starts up. And the start up impact is “medium”, this means the application will moderately impact my start up time by around 0.2 to 0.5 second (mileage may vary). The sum of your start up time can be found on top right corner of the windows that says “Last BIOS time”
Step 3. Controlling the apps
You can control which apps should start or should not start by simply selecting the app on the task manager windows, right click, and choose enable (and vice versa).
Congratulations, you are now one step further to be the windows OS’ true master!
Update Your Windows 10 Startup List
Another option would be to add new application to your start up list. All three steps above will mostly be all that you need because most apps will register themselves on the start up list manually. But what if you need more another app to greet you after you power up your computer? worry not, we will delve into that.
Step 1. Make a shortcut
First, you need to find your desired application’s shortcut by rightclicking the .exe and choosing the “create shortcut option. In this case, we will do it with AIMP, the music player app.
Step 2. Navigate to start-up directory
Press “Windows Button + R (run app)”, and input “shell:startup.” Next, press enter.
And then a new window will open.
This is the directory that controls the start up apps manually.
Step 3. Add your desired app’s shortcut into the directory
Put your appp’s shortcut into the directory
Just like this. Now look back to your start-up task manager window.
Now that AIMP is on your Windows 10 start-up list, you can control it.
Did this help? Let us know!