Question: Why does Notepad open when I boot up Windows XP?
The IT Guy says:
A program which starts up automatically when you start your computer probably does so because a shortcut to the program is in your startup folder. Since Windows XP allows multiple users on 1 computer, there are 2 places to check for this file.
Right click your start menu and choose OPEN ALL USERS, then open the PROGRAMS directory, and finally the STARTUP directory. If you see a shortcut to Notepad or a Notepad file in that directory, and do not want it to automatically open when you start the computer or login, drag that file to the trash.
It is possible the file is only opening for your user account on that computer. To check for this, again right click the start menu but this time choose OPEN instead of OPEN ALL USERS. Repeat the same steps as above, and throw away any shortcut files that you do not want opening at startup.
Knowledge of the startup directory can be helpful in a computer lab, especially if you always want a particular file to open on the computer every time students login. For example, if you always want the computer to open Internet Explorer and go to the school’s Web site, you can insert a shortcut to the school’s Web site in the startup folder for all users.
Programs can be triggered to start automatically with the login script setup by a network administrator, but it your case it sounds most likely that a shortcut just needs to be deleted from one of your computer’s startup directories.
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