Kill the startup folder: be less disorganized

In many of my older posts, I always tell you about the dangers of having a “startup” folder. It's not a good place to put files that you will have to access frequently since it only gets scanned once at the end of the booting process. I've said it before, but your startup folder is there for unimportant things that you don't need immediately but may need later when your computer boots.

Here are several directories that take priority over your startup folder: application data directory, program files directory, and your user directory.

The startup folder can be accessed from the run command window.

The startup folder is where Windows looks for programs to launch when you start your computer. If you've got a lot of software installed, this can lead to a slow boot time and even more memory usage as all those programs run in the background. The good news is that you can access the startup folder and remove any items you don't need to automatically launch with Windows.

This will free up some memory and make your PC boot faster. How to kill the startup folder on Windows 10 You can access the startup folder by launching the Run command window (press Windows key + R) and entering %appdata%\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs into the box at the top of the screen.

Follow this with a click on OK (or Enter). This will open your local application data folder — not something we recommend messing around with unless you know what you're doing! Once there, navigate through ProgramDataLocal until you find Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs. You'll see a list of applications here that are configured to run automatically when Windows loads up.

You can open the startup folder in windows 10 a number of ways.

Open start menu and click all apps. scroll down to windows system folder.

The Windows startup folder is a shortcut that loads apps when you start up your computer. These shortcuts are found in the Start Menu\All Apps\Windows System folder. If you’re like me, you probably have dozens of programs in there, and it’s becoming hard to find the ones you need. The solution? Kill the startup folder.

Open start menu and click all apps. scroll down to windows system folder. Right click on it and select open file location from the menu that pops up. This will open a new window showing you where that shortcut is located on your hard drive. Copy the folder from this window by pressing CTRL+C (or right clicking on it and selecting copy).

Then go back to the previous window and paste by pressing CTRL+V (or right clicking on an empty part of the window and selecting paste). Now close out both windows and go back to your desktop or taskbar (depending on how old your computer is). Right click on any blank space in an open area of your taskbar or desktop, then select new>folder from the menu that pops up (this may vary depending on what version of Windows you have).

If you need to use a better display interface, you can launch task manager as follows: right-click on an empty space on the taskbar, select task manager, and then click on the startup tab.

If you have a slow computer, the startup folder may be one of the reasons why. To start with, we need to know where it is. The startup folder is a special folder in which Windows saves programs that run automatically when Windows starts. It is very easy to find: just open your computer and click on the start button at the bottom left of the screen.

Then click on the search bar and type Run. When you see Run appear on top of File Explorer window, click on it and go to "All apps". There you will find Startup folder in All Apps/Startup. Now let's see what programs are stored there: most of them are necessary for proper functioning of your system, such as antivirus software or drivers for your hardware devices, but there may be also unnecessary programs that can slow down your PC considerably if they don't have enough memory resources allocated or if they use too much CPU power during their launch process (they are called "heavy" applications).

All in All...

When it comes down to it, having a tidy startup folder can help you be more productive and effective both in the short term and in the long run. It's not something you need to do all at once either. Take it easy, start with your most-used apps, then add others piece by piece.

Before you know it, your startup folder will be a thing of beauty.