Guide
Does your PC take forever to boot? Nine times out of ten it's the programs that launch on their own. Here's how to sort them out, for free.
Almost every program you install tends to sign itself up to launch with Windows. After a couple of years there are a dozen of them starting all at once at boot, fighting over the disk and CPU: that's why the PC "takes three minutes". The good news: disabling them is simple and safe, and uninstalls nothing.
Press Ctrl + Shift + Esc (or right-click the taskbar → Task Manager). Go to the Startup apps tab (in Windows 10 it's called Startup).
You'll see the list of everything that launches with Windows, each with its status: Enabled or Disabled.
Look at the Startup impact column: Low, Medium or High. Focus on the "High" and "Medium" ones you don't need at boot: they're the ones that slow things down most.
If you don't recognize a name, look it up online before touching it, but most of the time they're utilities from programs you know.
Right-click the program → Disable. Most things aren't needed at startup: they open when you need them.
Remember: disabling at startup does NOT uninstall anything. If you change your mind, go back to Task Manager and click Enable.
Restart the PC: boot should be faster and more responsive. To go further, also check the background processes that use CPU and memory while you work.
The Startup programs section in TurboFix shows every program with its real icon and where it launches from; disable it (and restore it) with one click, safely. Free, in English, entirely local.
Download TurboFix free →No. It stays installed: it just no longer launches on its own with Windows. Open it when you need it and, if you like, re-enable it at startup.
There's no magic number, but if a dozen or more launch with Medium/High impact, you can almost certainly disable quite a few without any trouble.
Yes, they're the number one cause of a slow boot: launching all at once, they fight over the disk and CPU for the first few minutes.
Keep reading: the glossary · Slow PC: how to speed it up · TurboFix features
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