Startup folder gives double instances

bmwbiker · 05 Mar 2011

Just ran into a curious glitch in my Win7. Whatever I put into my startup folder is started twice upon booting. If I put a shortcut to Thunderbird in the startup folder, the next time I boot two copies of Thunderbird are started. I checked to see whether there was another startup folder in the logged-on user Programs folder (C:\Users\<username>\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\) in addition to the general Programs folder (C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\) and there wasn't, even though it shouldn't cause a duplication. Has anyone run across this situation? Ideas, anyone?

(1 hour later) I see that Etihtsarom had a similar problem about a year ago, but I didn't see a resolution to the problem.

pip22 · 06 Mar 2011

The other startup entry may be in the Registry (where most startup items are called from).

Too see all Startup entries wherever they are called from, install Ccleaner from here:
CCleaner - Download

Open it, click on the Tools icon in the left vertical ribbon.
Click on Startup in the adjacent ribbon & all your startup items are listed from all locations.
You can then highlight an entry & optionally disable it or remove it.

bmwbiker · 06 Mar 2011

Thanks for your suggestion. I have used the program, Autoruns, for the same purpose. It shows both instances of Thunderbird originating in the startup folder. If I kill (uncheck box) either one it wipes my startup folder clean and of course Thunderbird does not start automatically at the next boot. Two copies of Tbird also show in TaskManager at startup. There I can end either one but that has no effect on the next boot. I've also tried putting a shortcut to safe mode Tbird in the startup folder to check on the influence of add-ons. Same result: double instances at startup. If I try to start a third instance while I have either or both of the startups, the third fails--kills itself, which is the "proper" behavior according to the Mozilla website.

(Added later) Apparently it's not a Thunderbird problem. If I put Spider Solitare in the startup folder I get two copies of it launched at startup. Very curious.

Brink · 06 Mar 2011

Hello BMWbiker, and welcome to Seven Forums.

You might check using METHOD FOUR in the tutorial below to see if you may be able to cleanup only the duplicate entries directly in the registry without it deleting all of them.

Startup Programs - Change

Hope this helps,
Shawn

bmwbiker · 07 Mar 2011

Current item in Startup folder didn't show in any of the registry run entries. I ran out of time to deal with this problem and rolled the system back to mid-February via a full backup. Startup folder is again working properly. I suspect, but cannot be certain, that the problem was a little program I installed called Startup Monitor (by Mike Lin, available at his site) which alerts you when any newly installed program inserts itself into the startup sequence either via registry or startup folder. It does this by inserting itself into the startup sequence (How ironic!). But it was never intended for Win7, much less 64-bit. So if that was the case I have no one to blame but myself. In any event, I'm moving on. Thanks for your suggestions.

Brink · 07 Mar 2011

That's great news BMWbiker. Sometimes those older programs may have unknown side effects.

klepp0906 · 29 Oct 2014

just to add a bit to this.

I am currently having the same exact issue. I cannot do a roll back unfortunately. What i CAN tell you is the problem is not the software you suggested. I have never even heard of it and i have very limited and all mainstream AAA software on my pc atm.

It was something changed somewhere and I wish i could figure out what.

I too thought it was a specific startup entry causing my issue originally. After wasting someodd hours on that i proceeded to add a batch file i created as a replacement and that too showed up twice immediately! I then put a blank/empty text file in the staartup folder and POOF two instances of that showed up as well.

Im at a loss but would LOOOOOOOOVE some suggestions/help myself.

klepp0906 · 29 Oct 2014

ack - just realized this thread was uber old. I fail @ forum'ing.

Startup folder gives double instances

Startup folder gives double instances

Thanks, Shawn