There are three places where you can try to stop programs loading automatically:
- The Startup folder
- WIN.INI
- Registry
The Startup folder is the most obvious location for a program reference. To check the contents of the start-up folder, right-mouse click on the Start menu, select Open, double-click on Programs and then double-click on Startup. If you see a shortcut to the program(s) you wish to stop loading automatically, delete it.
To edit the WIN.INI file, select Start, Run, type sysedit and click on OK. Inside the System Configuration Editor, locate the WIN.INI window and make it active. This file typically contains a lot of text. Search the WIN.INI file for a "run=" or "load=" line under the [windows] section. The programs referred to in these lines are the ones that load at startup. To stop these programs from loading at startup, just delete the entire line and save the changes.
* The Registry. Select Start, Run, type regedit and click on OK to open the Registry Editor. Navigate your way to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\\SOFTWARE\\Microsoft\\Windows\\CurrentVersion\\RUN. In the right pane, you'll find programs that load when Windows 95 starts. Right-mouse click on the one giving you grief, select Delete, and close the Registry Editor.
(As always, before editing the Registry, back it up. One way is to zip your System.dat and User.dat files and store them on a floppy disk.)