Add a new startup application 
Open your registry and find the key [HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run]. 

For each program you want to start automatically create a new string value using a descriptive name, and set the value of the string to the program executable. 

For example, to automatically start Notepad, add a new entry of "Notepad"="c:\windows\notepad.exe". 

Note: Remember to include the full path to the file, if the directory is not included in your default search path. 

Remove a startup application 
If you're trying to remove a program and can not find it in the StartUp folder (usually C:\WINDOWS\Start Menu\Programs\StartUp), then it may be launching from one of the registry keys below. To remove it, delete the value associated with the program you want to remove. 

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run]
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\RunOnce]
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\RunServices]
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\RunServicesOnce]
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon\Userinit] 

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run]
[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\RunOnce]
[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\RunServices]
[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\RunServicesOnce]
[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Windows] 

It may also be loaded from the [Load] or [Run] sections of your WIN.INI file, found in the Windows directory.

 

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