Truly stop Dropbox client from starting automatically on Windows 10.

[Garret W.]

This is happening to me on Windows 10 Pro 64-bit. When I first installed Dropbox 3.14.7 I thought it it was well-behaved, because it offered an option to disabled "Start Dropbox on system startup". But that doesn't work.

I have certain drives that aren't mounted when the system starts. I have moved the Dropbox configuration files (via an NTFS symbolic link) to that drive, but I make sure that I mount the drive before starting the Dropbox desktop application. I have disabled "Start Dropbox on system startup".

Yet still when I boot Windows 10, Dropbox throws up a dialog informing me that it has failed to start. *I had told it not to start automatically! Of course it will have a problem---I haven't mounted its settings drive yet. *But I told it not to start!*

If Dropbox has a "Start Dropbox on system startup" option, it should honor that options. Don't control my system while pretending to give me options to disable the software. Please tell me how to *really* stop Dropbox from starting automatically, even the secret whatever-it-does-to muck-around-with-my-system, or I am removing the software from my computer. Thanks.

[J27H · Accepted solution]

To truly prevent Dropbox from changing the autoplay settings (in Windows 10):

1. Close Dropbox;
2. Open Regedit and go to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\AutoplayHandlers;
3. Search for EVERY key with written "Dropbox autoplay" and replace this with either "MSOpenFolder" or "MSPromptEachTime" depending on your preferences;
4. Restart the PC.

Right now it is working for me, but as always YMMV!

[proft]

Yes, tried exactly this, but regretfully, Dropbox still opens on startup.

Extremely frustrated.

[Paata_K]

It worked! thanks

[redbeard5598]

---

@J27H wrote:

To truly prevent Dropbox from changing the autoplay settings (in Windows 10):

1. Close Dropbox;
2. Open Regedit and go to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\AutoplayHandlers;
3. Search for EVERY key with written "Dropbox autoplay" and replace this with either "MSOpenFolder" or "MSPromptEachTime" depending on your preferences;
4. Restart the PC.

---

What disturbs me is that this is necessary. The program has an option to not run on startup. And, you know, if I don't want it to run on startup, I don't want ANY of it to run on Startup. Dropbox is killing my bandwidth with unnecessary synchronization, unnecessary network traffic, and whatever else it's doing. It may not be intended as malware, but right now, Dropbox is malware. It's a parasite on my system, that does not provide a sufficient return for me to allow it to continue.

I'll find a different solution to the problem. Goodbye, Dropbox.

[bala41288]

I would suggest installing CCleaner and remove all dropbox related items from the startup. That worked for me. 

[Glenn223]

Unchecking the box does NOT prevent Dropbox from starting on start up.

[Wukie]

The fact that it is this complicated to keep it from loading with system startup is why I have removed it as of today. I disabled it in Windows Startup and unchecked to start with system boot in preferences yet when I run Task Manager after restarting, there it is. You're not the only app to pull this stunt and I will never use a service that pulls these shady tactics. Shame on you as a company. Although, when has customer satisfaction and user experience ever mattered over selling said users data and profits?

[Hmmmm_]

Yeah, there's no way for dropbox (background) services to stop. You can delete them through the task manager, through applications to disable or delete apps from booting, but that doesn't stop dropbox services from booting up. Note, this is different from the dropbox application. I agree. It's terribly shady and unethical what dropbox is doing. Looks like they're copying Google and how Chrome update and it's services autostart too.

[MamaOsa]

I have win 7 and my system will not let me access MSCONFIG  to turn off dropbox.  I have used dropbox in the past but haven't in a long time.  I would like to turn it off until I truly want to use it, not have it running in the background...