Windows opening multiple copies of the same application

Question

Windows opening multiple copies of the same application

Anonymous

First a little disclaimer: I don't speak English as my native so as I'm translating all these computer words, there might be mistakes

My computer has been kinda slow-ish for a long time. It started to get slower some time after I got windows 10 from my sister and I've waited for an update to fix this problem but none have come. When I log in to my account and my desktop launches it takes ages, far longer than it should. I have quite good computer since it is built for playing. My hardrive has almost 2/3 empty space and I have loads of RAM. Sometime ago I had to launch taskmanager and noticed that for some reason my Windows 10 launches the exact same applications multiple times. At the moment I have running:

5 x Dropbox 32-bit
5 x Google Chrome
4 x NVIDIA container

Just to mention the applications that have the most copies running in the background. These applications DO NOT show as active applications (like this Google Chrome I'm using to write this, and no I have only 3 tabs open, it can't be that) and if I try to close one, all of them close. I'm not sure if this is what's making my computer slow but this is the only thing I can think of. The slowness is the most noticeable and annoying when I'm logging in, because I have few applications that open by default when I log in: Discord, Skype and Spotify. I have few times managed to get the taskmanager open during launch and these applications multiply too! This multiplying doesn't happen 100% of the time to the same application, but there are always copies of multiple different ones in the taskmanager. This has been an issue prior to the Fall Creator's Update.

I have tried to search online but all I've found are tutorials on how to fit multiple applications in one screen. Maybe I'm a bad searcher.

Locked Question. This question was migrated from the Microsoft Support Community. You can vote on whether it's helpful, but you can't add comments or replies or follow the question.

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6 answers

Answer 1

Anonymous

I'm sorry that answering you took so long. Lot of life happened. I did what you suggested, but I see no difference in my computer's performance or the amount of applications it opens

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Answer 2

Anonymous

Try this work around.

Open Start &gt; Settings &gt; Accounts &gt; sign-in options

Scroll down to Privacy 



Toggle off



Use my sign-in info to automatically finish setting up my device after an update or restart.

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Answer 3

How long has this been a problem? If it is recent, then could be part a "Fall Creators Update" new feature that is running amok on some computers.

The FCU introduced a "new feature". When you start windows, now it automatically starts the programs that were running when you stoppped Windows. But, as you have seen, some people are having a problem where Windows is starting multiple copies of these applciatins. And the number of copies seems to grow with each start. Off the top of my head, it sounds like the feature is constantly ADDING one to a counter without clearing it appropriately.

Try making sure to stop all applications BEFORE shutting windows down. That has helped for some people.

Answer 4

Anonymous

Hello Saddistl,

Could you possibly provide us with your system specifications?

For example. Intel i5, 8 GB DDR 3, NVidia 1080ti

This will go a long way to help determine the issue.

Thanks

-Dave K

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Answer 5

Anonymous

This was an issue before the Fall Creators Update, but you just did explain why Windows opened all those programs at login yesterday. Thanks for that! I was avoiding the update as long as possible but I had to yield...

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Windows opening multiple copies of the same application

6 answers