Android 2.2 - How to see applications that run at start-up

Question

Possible Duplicate:
How can I prevent applications from running on startup?

Hello!

Is it possible to see which applications are set to run at startup? For example, the idiots at Yahoo made the Android Messenger so that it starts on Android Start-up, but provide no way of preventing this behaviour. They always do this kind of dirty tricks...

Anyway, is there sort of an msconfig as in Windows?

Thank you.

If you logout from Yahoo Messenger, it will not automatically login when you reboot your phone. — Lie Ryan, Dec 27 '10 at 14:58
I know, I killed the process, but I want to see which apps start after rebooting and change that if needed. — Francisc, Dec 27 '10 at 16:32

Saiboogu · Accepted Answer · 2010-12-27T13:46:27.897

I don't know of a free solution, though there may be one.

I do know of Autostarts, currently just under 1 USD, a pretty good price in my opinion. It gives you a list of applications that have attached themselves to different events in the Android OS (I'm not an Android programmer, my wording is likely wrong there). You can then choose to disable that association without actually removing or disabling the application. For your Yahoo startup example -- With Autostarts you can prevent it from launching on startup, but it will still be accessible for you to launch at your leisure later on.

Forgot to mention - this does require root. A bit of searching seems to confirm that there is no way to disable startup apps without root - your only option in that case would be uninstalling them.

I also stumbled on a manual process that I've never personally tried -- You can do what Autostarts does by issuing some shell commands (ADB or Terminal Emulator app).

su pm disable <package name>/<package name>.<activity name>

I believe that would translate to something like:

su pm disable com.yahoo.mobile.client.android.im/com.yahoo.mobile.client.android.im.android.intent.action.BOOT_COMPLETED

But I've never tried this myself.

Thank you, Saiboogu. Excellent answe, I pressed set as accepted 9 times! Hope that counts for something. :) — Francisc, Dec 27 '10 at 16:36
The info in the answer (talking about price) is not complete: Autostarts is free software (= open-source), also available from f-droid.org, which is important to know for those who don't want to install non-free software (non-community-reviewed, possibly malicious code). — imz -- Ivan Zakharyaschev, Apr 29 '13 at 18:49

score 3 · Answer 2 · answered Dec 27 '10 at 15:05

3

There is an application called Startup Cleaner (Free). Startup Cleaner does not require root, however just like Saiboogu said, you cannot actually prevent application from starting up without rooting. Startup Cleaner register itself at boot time, and then kills applications that you want to prevent from starting up at boot time; and after some time it kills itself.

answered Dec 27 '10 at 15:05

Lie Ryan

19,073
6
65
83

Thank you Lie, I'll see about Startup Cleaner as well. Thanks. – Francisc Dec 27 '10 at 16:36
I've used similar apps, unfortunately they often cause problems and most apps just start up again later. – Matthew Read Dec 27 '10 at 19:37
Yeah, I've decided not to go down that road. I generally dislike "cleaner" apps etc from my Windows OS experience. – Francisc Dec 28 '10 at 17:57
which is precisely why I uninstalled that apps as well; though it might be a viable alternative if you don't want to root. – Lie Ryan Dec 29 '10 at 13:51

Android 2.2 - How to see applications that run at start-up

2 Answers2

Linked