Do apps from your previous session reopen when you start Windows? Or do some programs launch every time, even if you don’t use them? This can seriously slow down the boot process. Thankfully, Windows makes it easy to manage which apps launch on startup—and turning them off takes just a few tweaks.
Turn off restartable apps
By default, Windows may automatically reopen apps that were active before you shut down or restarted your PC. For example, if you were taking notes in Notepad or surfing the web in Microsoft Edge, those apps could reopen the next time you log in. If you’d rather start fresh every time, you can turn off this behavior with a quick setting change.
To do so, click the Start button and open “Settings.” Go to the “Accounts” tab in the left sidebar, then select “Sign-In Options.” Scroll down to the Additional Settings section and find “Automatically save my restartable apps and restart them when I sign back in.” Toggle this option off, and Windows will stop reopening apps from your previous session.
Turn off folder relaunching
While turning off the app restart setting prevents most applications from launching at startup, any folders you had opened—like Documents or Downloads—can still reopen after a restart. If you don’t want File Explorer to remember your last session and clutter your desktop with multiple folders, you’ll need to turn off a setting in File Explorer’s Folder Options.
To stop folders from reopening, open File Explorer, click the three horizontal dots (See More) menu, and select “Options.” In the Folder Options dialog, go to the “View” tab, locate “Restore previous folder windows at log-on” under Advanced Settings, and uncheck it. Next, click “Apply” and then “OK.” Now, File Explorer won’t reopen your last session’s folders.
Disable Fast Startup
Following the steps above should prevent apps or folders from your previous session from reopening at startup. If they still do, you may need to disable Fast Startup. This hybrid shutdown feature lets Windows boot faster by saving some session data to disk, which can include background apps or services—causing them to reopen unexpectedly.
To turn it off, type Control Panel in Windows Search and open it. Go to Hardware and Sound > Power Options and click “Choose what the power buttons do.” Next, click “Change Settings that are currently unavailable,” uncheck “Turn on Fast Startup,” and click “Save Changes.” After a full shutdown, apps should no longer relaunch automatically.
Turn off startup apps
If the applications opening at startup aren’t from your previous session but launch automatically every time you boot your computer, they’ve likely been added to the Startup Apps list. Unlike the earlier steps, where you flipped a single toggle, here you’ll need to turn off each startup app individually. Task Manager lets you disable them quickly and easily.
To stop specific apps from launching at startup, right-click the Start button and open “Task Manager.” Go to the “Startup Apps” tab on the left sidebar, locate the apps you don’t want starting automatically, right-click each one, and select “Disable.” Once disabled, these apps won’t launch at startup—but make sure not to turn off any critical apps you rely on.
Turn off background apps
If specific applications don’t appear on your screen at startup but consistently show up in Task Manager, consuming hefty system resources, they might be configured to run silently in the background. To prevent them from using your hardware unnecessarily, you can change their permissions to stop background activity.
To do this, click the Start button and open “Settings.” Navigate to the “Apps” tab on the left, then select “Installed Apps” on the right. Click the three dots next to an app, choose “Advanced Options,” and set “Background Apps Permissions” to “Never.” Repeat this for any other apps you want to prevent from running in the background.
Turn off Restart Apps using Registry Editor
If you disable an app from starting automatically but notice that, after a few days, it regains permission to launch, you’ll need to make a change at the Registry level to enforce the setting system-wide. This tweak prevents apps from automatically restarting, even if a user turns the option back on in the Settings app.
To do this, press Win + R, type regedit, and hit Enter. Then navigate to: HKEY_CURRENT_USER > Software > Microsoft > Windows NT > CurrentVersion > Winlogon. Right-click in the right pane, select New > DWORD (32-bit) Value, name it RestartApps, and set its value to 0. If the value already exists, just modify it to 0.To undo the change, set the “Value Data” field back to 1 and restart your computer for this change to take effect.
Applying the methods above will stop automatic app restarts and prevent old apps from reopening after a reboot. Once implemented, your computer will boot faster, startup will be cleaner, and system resources won’t be wasted. You can also easily undo these changes if you want to restore the default behavior and allow certain apps to launch at startup.
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This was originally posted by HowtoGeek.