First Things First

First, we need to make a distinction between application programs and services. For the purposes of this chapter, an application program (or application) is a program that, when open, usually has a program window on your desktop and a rectangular button in the taskbar. Typically, you open and use such a program to perform some specific task, such as browse the web or perform spreadsheet tasks. Then you close the program when you've finished that task. To close such a program, you can typically click the Close (X) button in the program's upper-right corner or right-click the program's taskbar button and choose Close. You can reopen the program at any time by clicking its icon on the Start menu. When in Tablet mode, modern Windows apps can be closed by grabbing the top edge of their window and dragging the app to the bottom of the display. Release the mouse button and the app closes. Or, move the pointer to the top of the window and wait until the close button appears, and then click the close button.

Services are also application programs, but services generally don't provide any means for the user to interact with them. Many services are included as part of the operating system. For example, the Windows Time service provides time synchronization functions for Windows, enabling it to set the computer's time from a remote time server. The DHCP Client service is another example of a service. It is responsible for, among other things, obtaining an IP address for your computer when the computer starts up (or when the address lease expires), enabling your computer to participate on the network.

Neither the Windows Time service nor the DHCP Client service provides any means for you to interact with them; they do their thing in the background with no input from you. In contrast, the Windows Firewall service provides a means for you to interact with it. Even so, Windows Firewall is still a service, and most of the time, you don't interact with it. Services such as this that provide a means for user interaction are by far the exception rather than the rule.

Why are we telling you about services and how they differ from other programs? In most cases, you don't need to manage services or control their startup, but in some situations, doing so is necessary. Most of the time, you're more concerned with which application programs start automatically. But it's important for you to understand the difference so that you can make an educated decision as to how to handle services. One of the main focuses of this chapter is to help you understand how to make programs start automatically that normally don't do so, how to stop certain programs from starting automatically, and why you would want to do either. Let's start with how you make programs start automatically.

Starting Programs Automatically

If you always use a certain program when you start your computer, you can configure Windows to start that program automatically. For example, maybe you use Microsoft Outlook all the time for your e-mail and want it to open as soon as you log in to the computer so that you don't have to start it yourself.

Using the Startup folder

You have a couple of ways to make programs start automatically when you log in. In previous versions of Windows (for example in Windows 7), you could access the Start menu from the Start button and All Programs menu. Neither Windows 8.1 nor Windows 10 provides this type of access to it. Similarly, you cannot use Search to directly find the Startup folder.

Fortunately, you can pin the Startup folder to the Start screen so you can quickly add or remove programs from it. To do that, use these steps:

1. Press Windows+X and then click Run.
2. Type shell:startup and click OK. File Explorer opens so you can see the contents of the Startup folder. Click the Programs folder in the Address bar to go back one subfolder so you can see the Startup subfolder listed in the main Explorer window. Figure 11.1 shows an example Startup folder. You also can enter the following path, using your user profile name in place of <username>:

   C:Users<username>AppDataRoamingMicrosoftWindowsStart MenuPrograms

3. Right-click the Startup folder and choose Pin to Start on the context menu, as shown in Figure 11.2. A shortcut of the folder appears in the current folder view.
4. Open the Start menu and scroll through it to see the Startup folder pinned to the Start menu, as shown in Figure 11.3.

You can now open the Startup folder to view and manage programs that start when you boot up Windows. If you want a program to start automatically for you, put a shortcut for the program in your Startup folder. If you want a program to start automatically for everyone, you can instead put it in the Startup folder for all users.

If you're already logged in to your user account, the steps to open your own Startup folder are easy:

1. Open the Start menu.
2. Scroll over until you see the Startup folder tile on the menu.
3. Click or tap that Startup folder tile. The folder opens as a folder on the desktop.

To make an application program auto start, right-drag (drag with the right mouse button) an icon for that program into the Startup folder and drop it there; then choose Create Shortcuts Here.

If you're struggling to create a shortcut, open the file location where the application executable is stored, right-click the file, and choose Create Shortcut. Then move the resulting shortcut to the Startup folder.

Using the Task Manager Startup tab

You can use the Windows 10 Task Manager to help you manage and monitor running programs and services. Chapter 32 discusses Task Manager in detail, but it's worthwhile to mention now that you can view and disable properties of programs in your Startup folder with the Startup tab. To open Task Manager, click or tap in the search box on the Start menu and type Taskmgr, and then click or tap on the Task Manager app, which appears at the top of the search results.

Figure 11.4 shows an example of a Startup tab (click More Details to view this tab). Notice the Status column. It tells you if a program is enabled or disabled. To disable a program, right-click the row on which it appears and click Disable. You also can click a program and click the Disable button at the bottom of the Task Manager window.

An interesting part of the Startup tab is the Startup Impact column. That column shows you the relative impact on your system when Windows starts a program automatically.

C:ProgramDataMicrosoftWindowsStart MenuPrograms

Using the System Configuration Tool to Control Startup

One tool that has existed in multiple versions of Windows that lets you control program startup is the System Configuration program. That program is also available in Windows 10. To open System Configuration, open the Control Panel, click Large Icons or Small Icons from the View By drop-down list, and click Administrative Tools. Double-click the System Configuration shortcut. Or, press Windows+R and enter MSCONFIG in the Run dialog box. Figure 11.5 shows the System Configuration program window.

The General tab, shown in Figure 11.5, offers three options for controlling startup:

• Normal Startup: Start Windows normally. All items that normally start automatically are started.
• Diagnostic Startup: Load only basic device drivers and operating system services but not other services or programs. Use this option to troubleshoot problems with Windows startup that might be caused by a third-party service, device driver, or program.
• Selective Startup: Choose which types of items to start automatically. Start Windows with basic devices and services, and optionally other system services and startup programs.

The Boot tab, shown in Figure 11.6, lets you control how Windows boots. The large list box lists all the operating system boot selections. If Windows 10 is the only operating system on the computer, it is the only one listed in the text box. If you have a dual-boot system (for example, with Windows 8.x and Windows 10 on the same computer in different partitions), those additional operating system instances also are listed. Click an instance and then click Set as Default to make that operating system boot by default when the computer starts.

The other options under the Boot Options group enable you to configure options for a safe boot so that the next time you start Windows, it boots with the specified safe boot option. You can also set the following boot options:

• Safe boot: Minimal: Windows boots with a graphical user interface (File Explorer) in safe mode running only critical system services, with networking disabled.
• Safe boot: Alternate shell: Windows boots to a command prompt in safe mode running only critical system services, with networking and File Explorer disabled.
• Safe boot: Active Directory repair: Windows boots to File Explorer in safe mode running critical system services and Active Directory.
• Safe boot: Network: Windows boots to File Explorer in safe mode running only critical system services, with networking enabled.
• No GUI boot: Windows does not display the Windows Welcome screen when starting.
• Boot log: Windows stores logging information from the startup process in the file %SystemRoot%Ntbtlog.txt.
• Base video: Windows boots to File Explorer in minimal VGA mode, which loads standard VGA drivers instead of the video drivers that are specific to the video hardware installed in the device.
• OS boot information: Windows shows the names of drivers as the drivers are being loaded during the startup process.
• Timeout: This option specifies how long the boot menu is displayed before the default boot entry is automatically selected. The default is 30 seconds.
• Make all boot settings permanent: Use this option to have the settings apply for all subsequent boots. You can open System Configuration and change the settings later, as needed. This option is useful when you want to use the same troubleshooting options for several boots.

Click Advanced Options to access the following additional boot options:

• Number of processors: Select this check box and specify the number of processors to use on a multiprocessor system. The system will boot using only the number of processors in the drop-down list.
• Maximum memory: Use this option to limit the amount of memory available to Windows (simulating a low memory situation). The value in the text box is megabytes (MB).
• PCI Lock: Select this option to prevent Windows from reallocating I/O and IRQ resources on the PCI bus. Windows preserves the I/O and memory resources set by the BIOS or UEFI.
• Debug: Select this option to enable kernel-mode debugging for device driver development.
• Global debug settings: Specify the debugger connection settings on this PC for a kernel debugger to communicate with a debugger host. The debugger connection between the host and target PCs can be Serial, IEEE 1394, or USB.
• Debug port: Specify using Serial as the connection type and the serial port. The default port is COM 1.
• Baud rate: Specify the baud rate to use when Debug port is selected and the debug connection type is Serial. Valid values for baud are 9600, 19,200, 38,400, 57,600, and 115,200, with 115,200 being the default baud rate.
• Channel: Specify using 1394 as the debug connection type and specify the channel number to use. The value for the channel must be a decimal integer between 0 and 62, inclusive, and must match the channel number used by the host PC. The channel specified doesn't depend on the physical 1394 port chosen on the adapter. The default value for the channel is 0.
• USB target name: Specify a string value to use when the debug connection type is USB. This string can be any value.

The Services tab (shown in Figure 11.7) gives you a means to disable services so that they don't start when Windows boots. This tab also shows the current state of the services on the computer. Selecting the check box beside a service indicates that the service is enabled. You can disable a service by clearing its check box. If you want to view only third-party services, select the Hide All Microsoft Services check box. This helps you identify services that are not part of the Windows 10 operating system.

In general, you should avoid disabling services unless you know exactly what the service does and what the consequences of disabling it are. Usually, you want to disable a service only if a tech support engineer or some troubleshooting documentation has directed you to do so.

The Startup tab is pretty useless in Windows 10. It simply has a link to the new and improved Task Manager's Startup tab, which was discussed earlier in the chapter (refer to Figure 11.5).

The Tools tab (see Figure 11.8) gathers a selection of useful tools for troubleshooting problems with your computer and compiling more information about programs. Just click a tool and click Launch to open the tool.

After you make changes to configuration settings in the System Configuration tool, you need to click OK and then restart the computer to make the changes take effect.

Services Snap-In

Windows 10 includes a system management framework tool called the Microsoft Management Console (MMC). The MMC provides access to various snap-ins, with each snap-in providing options for different configurations or an interface to manage items such as policies, accounts, and so on. One of these snap-ins is named Services.msc. It isn't a user-friendly program; instead, it's designed for professionals. Beginners and casual users are better off sticking with the Startup folders to work with auto start programs. Even so, beginners can start to understand how some of the underlying pieces of Windows work by looking through the Services console and checking out what some of the services do.

To start the Services snap-in, press Windows+R, and enter SERVICES.MSC. When the Services snap-in is open, use the View menu options to choose how you want to view icons. Figure 11.9 shows how things are displayed in the Detail view. The toolbar contains a couple of buttons for showing and hiding optional Console Tree and Action panes. (Both are shown in Figure 11.9.) Extended and Standard tabs are near the bottom of the window. Both tabs show the same information, but the Extended tab shows additional information about the selected service, with links for starting and stopping the service. The figure shows the Extended tab.

Selecting the Extended tab opens a new pane at the left side of the program window that shows detailed information about any service name you click. It also provides options to start a service that isn't running, or to stop or restart the service if it isn't running correctly.

If you scroll through the list of services, you'll probably see quite a few. Exactly which services are listed varies from one computer to the next. Few, if any, of the services have any meaning to the average computer user. These things are of use only to professional programmers, network administrators, support technicians, or other experienced professionals. What follows is mainly for those folks. We don't summarize what each service does because doing so would eat up several pages and only repeat the information that's already in the Description column.

The Status column shows Running for those services that are currently running. It shows nothing for services that aren't running. The Startup Type column shows whether the service is configured to run automatically, if at all. Common settings are as follows:

• Automatic (Delayed Start): The service starts automatically, but only after a delay in time to enable other dependent services to start.
• Automatic: The service starts automatically when the computer starts or when a user logs in.
• Manual: The service doesn't start automatically. You can start the service, however, by right-clicking the service name and choosing Start or by choosing Start from the Action menu.
• Disabled: The service is disabled and must be enabled from the Properties dialog box before it can be started.

To get more information about a service or change its Startup type, right-click the service name and choose Properties. You see a dialog box like the one in Figure 11.10.

The options you see in Figure 11.10 are typical of the items listed in the Services snap-in. The Description text box provides a description of the services and tells what will happen if you disable or stop the service. The Path to Executable text box shows the location and name of the program that provides the service. The Startup Type option provides the Automatic (Delayed Start), Automatic, Manual, and Disabled options.

The buttons let you stop, pause, resume, or start the service. Some programs accept parameters, which you can add to the Start Parameters text box.

The Log On tab provides options for granting rights to services that need permissions to run. The Recovery tab provides options for dealing with problems when a service fails to start.

The Dependencies tab (see Figure 11.11) is one of the most important of the bunch because it specifies which services the current service depends on (if any) and which services depend on the current service. For example, DNS is a TCP/IP thing (which is the protocol used by the Internet and most modern local networks). If a service isn't starting and you can't figure out why, seeing what services the current one depends on might provide a clue. If the dependent service isn't running, the original one you're looking at can't start, so you need to go to its dependent service and make sure it's starting.

If you're interested in learning more about TCP/IP and how the Internet works, any book on TCP/IP or networking, or any book or course that prepares you for Microsoft Certified Systems Administrator (MCSA) or Microsoft Certified Systems Engineer (MCSE) certification, explains all that in depth. For broader technical coverage of services, consult a technical reference such as Microsoft TechNet at http://technet.microsoft.com.

For more information on Microsoft certifications, see www.microsoft.com/learning/en-us/default.aspx.

Bypassing the Login Page

This is one of those little Windows secrets everyone likes to know about but should be cautious about using. It lets you bypass the login screen and start up Windows 10 in a specific user account automatically. Although it does save you one click at startup, it means anyone who sits at your computer can just turn on the power switch and have full access to everything in the specified user account. So don't do this if you want to keep other people out of the specified user account.

This trick requires administrative privileges. So, you need to know the password or you need to log in to an administrative account first. Here are the steps:

1. Press Windows+R, and enter netplwiz. Or you can click in the Search box on the Start menu and enter netplwiz. Click netplwiz in the search results. The User Accounts dialog box appears, as shown in Figure 11.12.
2. Grant permission or enter an administrative password if prompted.
3. Clear the Users Must Enter a User Name and Password to Use This Computer check box.
4. Click Apply.
5. In the dialog box that opens, type the name of the non-administrative user account to which you want to log in automatically.
6. If that user account requires a password, type the password once in the Password box and then again in the second box for confirmation. If the user account isn't password protected, leave both boxes empty.
7. Click OK in each open dialog box.

That's it. The next time you restart your computer, no login page appears. You're taken directly to your user account. If other user accounts exist on the computer, and you want to let another user log in, log out of your account (click the Start button, the arrow next to the lock symbol, and choose Log Off). You're taken to the login page, which works normally. For example, if you want to get into a password-protected administrative account, click that account's icon and enter the correct password.

If you ever change your mind about booting without a logon, just repeat Steps 1 and 2 in the preceding list. This time, however, select the Users Must Enter a Username and Password to Use This Computer check box and click OK.

Troubleshooting Startup

Many things can prevent Windows from starting properly. No simple solution to the problem exists because too many things might be wrong. Typically, you need a professional to fix such problems. But we can tell you a few things that even the average user can try to get things going again.

Wrapping Up

This chapter has covered all the different ways you can control which programs do, and don't, automatically start when Windows first starts up or when you first log in to your Windows user account.

• Some programs have their own built-in options for choosing whether the program starts automatically and appears in the notification area.
• You can start any application program automatically, or even open a folder automatically, by adding a shortcut for the program to the Startup folder.
• The full set of services that can be started and stopped automatically is listed in the Services.msc snap-in.
• The Services.msc snap-in is an advanced tool designed for professional Information Technology workers and network engineers. As such, it contains very little information that would be useful to the average computer user.
• You can use netplwiz to bypass the login page and go straight to any user account you wish.
• Safe Mode provides a means of starting Windows 10 with the fewest drivers and services. It helps you get the system started so that you can diagnose and repair the problem that is preventing normal startup.
• Use the Navigation tab of the Taskbar and Navigation Properties dialog box to control how and when Windows 10 displays the Start screen and desktop.