Windows Blocking Startup Programs

[ColColt]

Every morning I have an icon in the system tray that Windows has blocked some startup programs. Those two are Win Patrol and my Spyder5 Pro utility that loads my video card.

How do I stop this from happening as it didn't use to ask me for permission to run those two?

 

[Ironsounds]

Hello...1) Have you changed any OS security setting from Default?
2) What kind of ICON warning is it and what further information does it provide?

 

[bigpinkdragon286]

Can you clarify which action you are wanting to stop? Do you want to prevent those two programs from attempting to start at Windows boot, or stop Windows from preventing the two programs from starting during boot?

 

[ColColt]

Hello...1) Have you changed any OS security setting from Default?
2) What kind of ICON warning is it and what further information does it provide?

Not that I recall. This is a Vista machine if I failed to mention that. The icon looks like a small letter and when you let the mouse arrow over it it shows that you can run or block those two programs and shows which ones are blocked which are the two I mentioned. I chose to Run and then they started and their icons appeared in the system tray.

I tried msconfig, looked under Startup and ironically they are both checked in the boxes.

 

[ColColt]

Can you clarify which action you are wanting to stop? Do you want to prevent those two programs from attempting to start at Windows boot, or stop Windows from preventing the two programs from starting during boot?

I don't want to stop either of them. I just want them to load at startup like they use to instead of being prompted to load them.

 

[bigpinkdragon286]

Microsoft article

Looks like this may be related to UAC (User Account Control) restrictions.

I would try turning your UAC level to all the way off, and see if the problem doesn't go away, and then step it back up to a point where it continues to let your programs through.

Changing UAC in Windows Vista

 

[ColColt]

Microsoft article

Looks like this may be related to UAC (User Account Control) restrictions.

I would try turning your UAC level to all the way off, and see if the problem doesn't go away, and then step it back up to a point where it continues to let your programs through.

Changing UAC

I'm not sure what you mean by "stepping it back up". I've only seen the ability to either turn it on or off and I've read several places that it's not good to turn it off.

 

[Ironsounds]

Hello... You have a security setting that needs to be changed or altered for these APPs now...
1) What has changed?
2) Are you Loading these APPS as Administrator? or are you logging on as a USER? there are security settings between these two.
3) Are you Using a anti-virus APP now that needs a setting changed to allow the APPS to startup?

Reload a restore point when it was all working good.

 

[bigpinkdragon286]

Well, the point of UAC is to prevent programs from starting. Never had Vista, personally, and only ever had to support a few machines with it, so don't really remember how the UAC levels worked there or if they even existed. 7 - 10 however, you can set the UAC to different levels.

Here's the thing though, if this is a problem related to UAC, and your only option is to live with it or turn it off, you may have to just disable UAC to prevent the annoying startup behavior.

If you never through your action or inaction allow malicious programs to start on your computer, UAC is just an unnecessary nuisance.

Try booting the computer with UAC disabled and see if the problem goes away. You can then decide at that point what you will do with UAC, if the problem is solved.

 

[ColColt]

Hello... You have a security setting that needs to be changed or altered for these APPs now...
1) What has changed?
2) Are you Loading these APPS as Administrator? or are you logging on as a USER? there are security settings between these two.
3) Are you Using a anti-virus APP now that needs a setting changed to allow the APPS to startup?

Reload a restore point when it was all working good.

I'm not sure what's changed, that's the problem. A week ago I didn't receive that notification and I don't' recall setting any program to run as Administrator. I run avast free and it wanted to load Google Chrome which I didn't opt for but it was slowing down my shut down procedure so I uninstalled and reinstalled it and now only takes about 20 seconds to shut down whereas before it was taking a long time and later would not shut down at all unless I manually powered off.

I wouldn't think any of that has anything to do with this problem, however. I'd have to go back two weeks to do a restore point change and don't want to do that because now I have the shut down problem solved. Two weeks ago I didn't. I wouldn't want to go through that again.

 

[Ironsounds]

Hello... I would suggest creating restore points before you install APPs or adjust any settings in the future... this will help with following the path of problems between programs and bad updates.

1) Right click the program desktop icons... Do you have the option to run as ADMIN?
2) Do you type a password to a name/icon to start Windows desktop?

 

[ColColt]

Hello... I would suggest creating restore points before you install APPs or adjust any settings in the future... this will help with following the path of problems between programs and bad updates.

1) Right click the program desktop icons... Do you have the option to run as ADMIN?
2) Do you type a password to a name/icon to start Windows desktop?

I do have the option to run as administrator on many of them but I never use or have to use a password to start Windows.

 

[bigpinkdragon286]

I suggest you attempt the UAC fix that Microsoft has suggested. If that's your problem, there is no workaround. To test it is simple, however. Turn off UAC, reboot. If programs work as expected, you have your answer. If the programs don't work, that's not the issue.

 

[ColColt]

I suggest you attempt the UAC fix that Microsoft has suggested. If that's your problem, there is no workaround. To test it is simple, however. Turn off UAC, reboot. If programs work as expected, you have your answer. If the programs don't work, that's not the issue.

 

[ColColt]

I already did that. When I turn it off, reboot, those programs start soon after boot. When I go back in and tick the box again, restart, it 's the same scenario again with having to give permission for those two to run. Seems to me UAC is the problem.

 

[bigpinkdragon286]

You know what your problem is then, for the most part. Fiddling around with anything that doesn't affect how UAC restricts your software is going to get you nowhere. 😛

Having the correct access token given to your programs should alleviate the problem. If you can run them as administrator, which is not the same as running them from an administrator account, this may do the job, as it passes an unrestricted token rather than a restricted token to the programs when they start, and should allow the processes to start regardless of UAC settings.