Sysinternals: Autoruns missing entries?

Question

I've encountered two apps that start with Windows even though they have no entries present/enabled in Autoruns:

• Foxit PDF Reader has a behavior where it will open on startup on the last PDF document you were looking at; this behavior cannot be disabled in the app. In Autoruns, I only see the updater listed for disabling. After disabling the updater, Foxit PDF Reader itself still manages to load after each startup.
• WhatsApp (from the Microsoft Store) keeps populating the latest notifications in the Notifications center even though it is configured NOT to start with windows in both the app itself and in Windows 11 app settings. I do not see an Autoruns entry for either WhatsApp or the MS Store itself where I could prevent it from loading in any capacity

I'm wondering if maybe these applications are running by some other means (eg. userinit.exe? How does that work?) or if Autoruns is simply not listing them at this time. Where can I find the source of these startup entries so that I can disable them? I appreciate everyone's input on the matter.

EDIT: The reason why I'm using Autoruns is because these applications startup despite being disabled in System > Apps > Startup. I'm not sure why this is the case.

Answer 1

Hi. Thank you for your question and reaching out. I’d be more than happy to help you with your query.

If you're talking about a Start-up apps, you can just turn it off. To get a list of all the programs that can launch automatically, go to Settings > Apps > Startup and choose which ones need to be turned off. Sorting options include name, status, and startup impact. Each program has a switch next to it that lets you know whether it is currently in your starting routine by showing an On or Off status. Switching off an app's switch will disable it.

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