28

I am using a computer with Windows 10 and, as a normal procedure to reduce the boot time, I accessed the Task Manager and checked what was "Enabled" during the "Start-up".

Some of the programs

When I opened that tab, I saw a program called "Program", without Publisher information, which I have now disabled.

Program Disabled it

After that, I went straight to the Control Panel -> Programs and Features, in order to find out what the program is and to delete it; however, nothing with that name appears.

Given that, assuming that I don't know since when do I have that program on this computer, how can I know what this program is, so that I can decide on whether to remove it or not?

Mutantoe
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Gonçalo Peres
  • 911

3 Answers3

38

You can go to Microsoft Downloads, SysInternals and get Autoruns 64-bit (download it here). Download it, install it and run it and see if it shows you the program on your computer.

For your specific problem, access the "Logon" Tab.

Autoruns Logon

Yellow highlighted sections in the Autoruns display are errors and can be deleted.

That should solve your problem.

Gonçalo Peres
  • 911
31

You can rightclick on an entry and click Open file location wich leads you to the directory where the program is installed.

Open file location

As mentioned in the comments by Ismael Miguel this answer only applies to Windows 8, Windows 8.1 and Windows 10 (and the Windows Server variants). For Windows 7 and older, you need to use msconfig.

kevinSpaceyIsKeyserSöze
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10

Start-up entries are in the registry at Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run, and Software\WOW6432Node\... for 32-bit programs. There is one of these keys for each user and machine. For the current session that would be under HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE and HKEY_CURRENT_USER.

Any shortcuts in a Start Menu group called Startup (Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\Startup) will also be run. Again there are both per-user and per-machine locations, under %AllUsersProfile% and %AppData% for the current session.

Additionally, a scheduled task can be set to run at boot or login. This data is also in the registry Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Schedule, but in a much more complex format. This can be explored with the "Task Scheduler" app.

OrangeDog
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