How to disable helper apps in the system tray

[DaveC426913]

disabling "helper" apps in systray

Cockroaches.

How do I disable these "helpful" apps in my systray (such as Real, or Quicktime or iTunes)?

It's Run: boot.ini - or something like that?

 

[Doc G]

Is it running msconfig.exe what you are thinking of? You can disable processes that start up with your system there. I've only ever fiddled with the stuff on the 'startup' tab. However my quicktime seems to have a habit of coming back even when disabled.

 

[robphy]

Some of those applications are nice enough to set some "Preferences" for you... like whether they start with Windows or have a tray icon.

If you want to just control what gets started with Windows, go get http://www.sysinternals.com/Utilities/Autoruns.html , which looks in numerous places for commands that startup and allows you to disable [and re-enable] them. This and other very useful utilities are available from the homepage. Oh, yeah... they are freeware.

 

[hypermorphism]

I prefer to use Spybot (in advanced mode), as it also includes other utilities and helps clean out malware properly.