Using MSConfig to disable autostart

Windows 1 Minute

I guess most of you know that you can use msconfig (Start->Run->”msconfig”) to disable programs that are automatically started by Windows. And you might have wondered where these entries go, when you disable them. Especially it looks like magic if entries in the start menu’s Startup folders are concerned: You disable them in msconfig and the shortcuts disappear from the folder. You enable them, and the shortcuts reappear again. So how does msconfig know about these disabled entries?

Googling brought me (after lots of irrelevant entries, Google search seems to be getting worse by the day) to
this Stackoverflow question which also contains the answer:

They are stored in the registry under

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Shared Tools\MSConfig\startupreg

for programs that are started through the registry autostart and under

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Shared Tools\MSConfig\startupfolder

for programs started from the startup folder.

Thanks to my colleague Steffen who brought this up. Learned something useful today.

Published