Stop the Annoying "Windows Has Blocked Some Startup Programs" Balloon
So you followed some tutorial that told you to use msconfig.exe to modify your startup items… and now you keep getting an annoying message that says "Windows has blocked some startup programs". How irritating is that?
It's not difficult to stop this message from ever appearing again, and here's the easiest possible way to stop it.
Right-click on the annoying (and ugly) icon in the system tray, select "Run blocked program" and then "System Configuration Utility"
After the UAC prompt, you'll see this dialog message. Check the box for "Don't show this message or annoy me again when Windows starts".
Now you shouldn't get those messages anymore.
The Geek is the founder of How-To Geek and a geek enthusiast. When he's not coming up with great how-to articles, he's probably writing at his personal blog. This article was written on 01/7/08 and tagged with: Windows Vista, Vista Tips & Tweaks
FYI, this will not show up only till you modify the startup programs the next time. If you add/remove any startup programs using msconfig again, it will show up again.
If you're using Vista, you should be using *Windows Defender* to change statup programs, not msconfig; since Defender doesn't assume you're running as administrator (and so won't cause this message).
It's not always MSconfig that is the culprit.Sometimes other programs are blocked at startup also. In fact any program that requires UAC/elavated privileges during the startup process will cause this. More information is available at http://support.microsoft.com/kb/930367
This has been a very informative and entertaining read. Hell a lot of this stuff i had no desire to learn, but it was fascinating and well written. Keep up the good work!!
this srticle was extremely helpful to me. That was soooo annoying. I also have the same balloon popping up stating low disk space because I uswed automatic backup and now have run out of backup space. How can I keep this one from showing it's ugly face again?
If you have Windows XP, try the instructions at the link http://www.lockergnome.com/win.....arning-xp/
Thank God (geek)
This has been driving me nuts!
Once again you've help us wanna be geeks!
"Windows has blocked some startup programs" –no, I blocked them and I don't need to be reminded.
Leave it to Microsoft to develop another bloated piece o'junk OS like Vista…the only reason I got Vista was because Dell wasn't offering my laptop with XP…pretty soon they won't be offering anything with XP anymore. Microsoft is pushing me ever closer to switch to Linux for good…I'm already dual-booting.
The developers at Microsoft should be smart enough to know/understand that someone that goes into MSCONFIG and changes things usually knows what they are doing, and therefore has no need to be reminded that they shut off some startup programs. They should also understand that the newbies and the computer illiterate wouldn't know what to do with that message anyway. If anything it would cause panic or worry in the technologically challenged users.
At any rate, this was helpful in solving my problem…I'm just glad I didn't have to root around in the registry to turn it off.
>…no, I blocked them and I don't need to be reminded.
>The developers at Microsoft should be smart enough to know/understand that someone that goes into
>MSCONFIG and changes things usually knows what they are doing, and therefore has no need to be
>reminded that they shut off some startup programs.
No, *you* should be smart enough to realise that it's not the programs you disabled that are being blocked, it's *msconfig itself*; since msconfig requires admin privileges. The solution is to use the appropriate tool — i.e. one that is privilege aware — to block startup programs, which in Vista is Windows Defender.
msconfig quite often start a controlling program which leaves one or multiple services running.
Defender can only start & stop the resulting services, which is not necessarily what you want to happen.
This is especially true for Vista Inconpatible software e.g. Printer Software Drivers.
The solution to block the startup processes in msconfig & then hide the msconfig error message is part of the solution (until Microsoft offers a better way). The blocked processes can then be started via the Task Scheduler with Administrator Priviledges. (work around at best).
Even if this annoying little attribute of Vista does return…Hey, I don't change my startup everyday. I can cope with this. Sanity returns!
Nope, doesn't work, sorry.
If only someone could provide a simple registry edit to sort this problem out… It is so damn annoying and no-one seems to be able to provide a proper answer.
@Anon
You most likely have some application in your startup that requires administrator privs to run. You'll need to figure out which one it is and disable it from running at startup.
Fantastic thanks for the help wish i knew it was that easy!!!!
Just been reading some other comments about Vista. My laptop came with Vista basic and Norton anti virus i cant stand either i would love to have XP back.I have been surfing for the best part of 20 years and been on some pretty dodgy peer to peer sites and have never picked up a virus using the free version of AVG i enthusiatically recommend it to all my friends, they say you get nothing for free this freeware proves otherwise.My laptop runs video very slowly when running video content and when i play in large screen mode in windows media player the video runs very choppy can you suggest any tweeks i have 1 meg of RAM so the spec isnt that bad. The graphics card in an ATI Radeon 200 something.
thank you!
THANK YOU
Very helpful, just the info I was looking for!
Brief summary:
Remove the application that causes the error from msconfig, start menu/startup and registry.
Click start and type "task", Task Scheduler should come up. Run this.
Click Create Task then follow through the dialog boxes to start the program you want.
this is not my personal site it is the site to the instructions on setting up Tasks to run at startup using task scheduler. I dont seem to be able to post with a URL in this text
I know what I want on my computer better than Microsoft does. Thats why I took them out of the startup files . I dont like Windows defender , I dont like Norton .I have had the best defence with AVG and AdAware .
The best way to stop the baloon from poping up is to right click and
and click EXIT ….Hope this helps some of you !!!!!