Have you ever experienced a lag when you’ve just turned on your PC? This could be due to programs running in the background that you aren’t aware of. These programs were launched without the use of the Startup folder.
You can use this tutorial to:
- Launch programs without the user knowing
- Find out what programs are running that you aren’t aware of
To launch a program without using the Startup folder, you will need to edit your Registry a little. You can do this nifty little edit on Windows XP. Before you do anything to your Registry though, make sure that you have created a back-up. Not only are changes irreversible without a back-up, but they can also cause potential problems.
To proceed with the registry tweaking, follow the steps below.
- Go to Start.
- Click on Run and type Regedit. This will open your Registry box.
- When your Registry is open, go to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run.
HKEY_CURRENT_USER is a folder that you will see. Expand the folder to get to Software and so on until you get to the Run folder.
You can launch a single program in stealth mode or you can launch multiple programs if you like.Â
- To do this, right click on the white part of the right side pane of the box.
- Click New and select String Value. Rename this key as you like.
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Double click the key you just renamed and set the Value Data to point to the program path.
(Repeat the process for multiple programs.)
- Once you’ve finished, just click OK and exit the registry.Â
- Reboot the PC.
You’re all set!Â
Now, if you want to find out whether there are programs running in the background that you don’t know anything about, just follow the path stated above without creating new keys and check to see if there is anything running.