Windows 7 - Startup Programs - Change

Welcome to Seven Forums Vasumeesala.

Take a look at the post count on this tutorial!



Imagine that: over a million users have learned how to tame bloatware and get more control over their Windows in just a few years time!

Bravo, Shawn!

Wow, it's hard to believe that many people already.

Him thanks for your help in this matter I was unable to use one of the methods but the other one worked fine when I right-click on the EXT file and made the shortcut and then I tried to do the steps where you click on all programs right-click on the start up folder and click on open works for the it would just hang there I was able to put the file shortcut in the hidden location and my program open successfully I' running Windows 64 bit homepremium within Asus dual core Intel Pentium it's interesting that the help file tells you a certain way to do that and it doesn't work thank you for posting this as it offered me a workaround and I was able to you at this program to my start up sincerely Lance granum Lance the dude

You're most welcome Lance, and welcome to Seven Forums.

I like to keep my startup as lean as possible and keep trying to stop Sony PC Companion from running at bootup. I have tried everything the previous contributors have done, but after a while, PC Companion always inserts itself in the Startup list.

I have removed it using msconfig and disabled the service via Control Panel/Administrative Tools/Services, but after a while it always re-starts itself. There is obviously something still running that is re-inserting PC Companion into the Startup list, but what?

Any suggestions?

You can do what many tech enthusiasts do and find a clean copy installation DVD for your version and clean reinstall without the bloatware, using the Product Key on COA sticker. Reinstalling Windows 7

Besides unchecking everything in msconfig>Startup except AV and gadgets, check back for those which write themselves back in and turn them off in msconfig>Services after hiding all MS Services. Even then some will need to be turned off in their Program Preferences or uninstalled. Clean up factory bloatware

Thanks for your response.

I'm not sure I'd want to go through the trauma of re-installing Windows as I've got lots of apps and the last time I performed a clean re-install, it took several weeks to get my system back the way I wanted it.

I've attached screen shots of part of my msconfig setup and you'll see that Sony PC Companion is listed twice in Startup (why?). It's also unchecked, so shouldn't run at startup, but after a while, if I open msconfig again, PC Companion will have become checked for some reason.

I've also disabled the PC Companion service, so I don't know what else to try, other than the suggested Windows re-install, which I'd rather not. Process Explorer does not reveal anything that is obviously suspicious, the only Sony items being Vaio processes for LAN, battery monitoring, etc.

Any more thoughts?

Are you able to find access to PC Companion via any Sony listing in All Programs? Look for its Preferences to disable at Startup.

Apparently Sony PC Companion has its own Facebook page. There an engineer explains that to uninstall it you should delete its folders in Program Files. PC Companion | Facebook

I would instead rename to append .old to each and move them to desktop so they can be reinstated if need be.

You may need to take ownership: Take Ownership Shortcut

Wow - that was a quick response!

Here's a screen shot of my PC Companion settings, showing it is definitely not set to run at startup.