The Scripting Dude's Blog

I can't think of anything more annoying then when a program keeps registering itself to load at computer startup each time it runs. This is an install option that is at most a once only yes or no answer and then this option should be some where in the options menu for the program if necessary.

QuickTime will keep adding itself into the Registry's Run - "Key path". This is very annoying even if you have Windows XP and can use the msconfig utility (which is a really good utility by the way START > RUN > MSCONFIG - note this was introduced in Windows 98 yet was not made available in W2k for some reason). So here is a little script you can use to avoid QuickTime from loading up in the System Tray the next time you login into Windows after running QT.

The best place to add this script is in the logging off sequence of Windows. That way you don't have to turn the computer off to remove the registry key you just need to log off.

So first the script then i'll show you where to add the file for logging off.

const HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE = &H80000002

Set oReg=GetObject("winmgmts:{impersonationLevel=impersonate}!\\.\root\default:StdRegProv")

strKeyPath = "SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run"

strStringValueName = "QuickTime Task"

oReg.DeleteValue HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE,strKeyPath,strStringValueName

Once you have saved the above script to a file eg. c:\scripts\del_quicktime_key.vbs you then need to tell Windows to run the script when you log off.

First Open the Microsoft Management Console (Note this will not work for Windows XP Home). Start > Run > MMC. Then File > Add snap-in > Add > Group Policy > Add > Finish > Close > OK. --- Man I don't remember this process being so long (Note if you find that you want to Edit the Group policy many times you can now select File Save As and save the current arrangement of the console so you do not have to run these steps again). Once you have got the Group Policy just select User Configuration (as we want to do this on a user basis not when the Computer turns off) then select Windows Settings > Scripts (logon/logoff) Open the LogOff option and then select Add then browse to your file and add it into the listing for scripts to run when users logs off.

Now we could have used the registry to do this, yet only the first time we do this would it have been faster. Say we wanted to do the same thing again. Now ee could just do the following:

• Open the Console.msc we created. (When we selected File Save As)
• Select User Configuration
• Windows Settings
• Scripts
• then add the file.

As a rule if you don't have to manually edit the registry (apart from scripts of course) use another method eg. msconfig or another graphical user interface.

# posted by Cameron McBride @ 4:28 pm