Asked By
neilbrown
420 points
N/A
Posted on - 06/02/2011
Hello experts,
My operating system is Windows XP with Service Pack 2. I am here to ask a question, for the solution of a technical problem (being faced by me). My issue is that, I am willing to prevent a specific program from starting automatically (when Windows start).
Frankly, I would love to tell you that while using AVG free Antivirus and Windows XP personal firewall, I wished to turn-off all the functions of my secondary Security Suite (which I had installed earlier than AVG) without uninstalling this program. And my issue is that, I have not been successful so far to stop its functionality and to disable it from the list of auto start-up programs or applications.
I think this probably is because of this program’s nature; as it is a system security software/program. This is only my own perception and still, I tried everything (which came into my mind) to solve this issue but no success for me.
First of all, to do this, I right clicked the concerned program icon on my system tray, then clicked on the option to Shutdown that Security program. However, when my PC was restarted by me that program also restarted with my computing machine.
To solve it, I also went to the tab of start-up of my PC’s System Configuration Utility, which contained a ticked startup item ZL_client. I un-checked that mark but after restarting the PC, this item appeared as ticked again.
After that, I went to the folder C:WINDOWStasks and there appears, nothing at all related to the security program (whom I want to disable). Even after that I looked-up in C: Documents & SettingsneilbrownStart MenuProgramsStartup, (that also contained nothing related to the object program).
I opened the (text file) C:WINDOWSwin.ini too, but I can’t understand it.
I think that this issue may be solved by editing my window’s registry, but I do not have knowledge about it and I really don’t have any clue to do this. The security program about which I am talking about is, Zone-Alarm security suite and the version # of it is probably, 9.1.008.000.
I immediately need to know the solution for this issue as early as it can be possible.
In short, I want to know; how to prevent program starting automatically when Windows starts?
I am waiting for any clue anxiously.
How to prevent program starting automatically when Windows starts?
Well, did you check out the service that runs Zone Alarm Security Suite. I guess that service start up Type is Automatic. If you have the Administrative privileges you can change it to Manual or Disabled.
The system Services window is in the Administrative Tools. To open that
Go to Control Panel and select Administrative Tools.
And there you can see the shortcut for Services. Double click on it and open the Services window.
Go to the Service of the Zone Alarm Security Suite.
You can find the service of the Zone Alarm Security Suite by looking at the Name column or Description. You will see the Status Column of this as Started and Startup Type is set as Automatic. I'm hundred percent sure this is the cause of the problem.
To fix this just double click on the row of ZoneAlarm Security Suite service. Then you will get the Properties of the service. You can get the same dialog box by right clicking on the row and select the properties from the menu that appears.
In the properties dialog box select the General tab. There you can see Startup type with a drop down. Select the option Manual or Disabled. And also you can stop the service from here, if the Service status is Started. So the thing is done.
Restart your machine and check whether it has automatically started again. I'm sure it will not.
Whenever you want to start this service you can go to this Service window, from the administrative tools and manually start it. So you don't need to worry about uninstalling this software. Hope you got a perfect answer. But only this solution works out when you have the administrative privileges. If you don't have the necessary access rights, then you cannot change the properties of the service.
How to prevent program starting automatically when Windows starts?
Well I found out another way of doing this. If the above solution doesn't work out properly for you, then try this one.
Go to the Run dialog box and type msconfig and then click OK.
You will get the System Configuration Utility window from this way. Select the startup tab. There you will see the programs that will start automatically when you boot your machine.
For example in this screen, I need to get rid of Adobe reader update when starting Windows. So I need only to un check the check box of Reader_sl item (I found that it is the item which causes me the problem) in the Startup Item column and Click Apply button. Â Like this you have to find out, what item causes you the problem and disable it. After doing this you will never get that automatic startup of ZoneAlarm Security Suite.
Well the below options are the other stuff you can try out, to figure out a solution for your problem.  But I think this will not be needed because your problem can be solved  with the above 2 solutions. Given below are options to try out when any malfunction is carried out because of a virus.
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1) Using a program's own configuration options
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2) Windows StartUp folder
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3) 3rd party utility to control start-up programs
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4) Registry Editor
