[Windows 10] Stop Background Services and Process on Startup and Application Exit

Report · May 11, 2019

I don't have a Premium Subscription and only use Adobe Creative Cloud lightly for quick view or sampling XD or for quick edit staging of screenshots from my Android Mobile... and my device that has Creative Cloud installed is a 2-in-1 powered by an Intel Atom x5-z8350 with 4GB of RAM.... so I was annoyed to find that ACC did not adhere to the App Preference of "Launch at Logon" disabled.

So, I made my own. You can create a script file for the following commands, and then add it to your start menu, or shortcut on the desktop.

Note that these are PowerShell commands and Run in Admin Mode. Fastest way to get there is: WindowsKey+X, A.

On Application Exit, Run This in PowerShell - or Make a Shortcut

Get-Process -Name Adobe* | Stop-Process

Get-Process -Name CCLibrary | Stop-Process

Get-Process -Name CCXProcess | Stop-Process

Get-Process -Name CoreSync | Stop-Process

These are the Auto-Start Services, you can check if there are Adobe Services with the Command:

Get-Service -DisplayName Adobe*

This will Stop the Services, and change the startup from Automatic to Manual - Opening Adobe Applications will start these services, without your interaction. If you have issues, you can manually start them by replacing Get-Service with Start-Service, or open the Services Panel with WindowsKey+R: "services.msc"

Setting Startup to Manual only needs to be run once. Stopping the services needs to be done each time you exit application, if you don't want background services running. Such as Sync.

Get-Service -DisplayName Adobe* | Stop-Service

Get-Service -DisplayName Adobe* | Set-Service -StartupType Manual

You can go further by removing the Run at Logon in Registry, first confirm they are found.

Get-Item Registry::HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run

Backup your existing Run Key. This command is Powershell Only. This will create a reg file called 'RunAtLogOn-Backup' in your user folder.

REG EXPORT HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run $env:USERPROFILE\RunAtLogOn-Backup.reg

and the command prompt version.

REG EXPORT HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run %USERPROFILE%\RunAtLogOn-Backup.reg

To remove these keys in Powershell:

Get-Item Registry::HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run | Remove-ItemProperty -Name AdobeAAMUpdater-1.0

Get-Item Registry::HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run | Remove-ItemProperty -Name AdobeGCInvoker-1.0

These are crude methods of what I needed without scripting anything in length.

Report · Jan 26, 2021

Also alternatively, you could go to Start => Windows Administrative Tools => System Configuration

Then click on the services tab. (Optionally click the Hide all Microsoft services box)

And uncheck the boxed nex to the adobe services listed.

This plus turning off the startup items in Task Manager effectively nixed all adobe process from running at start up.

And I actually have a sub and use Photoshop / Premeire

Although, I'm dropping it soon as Premeire is hot poo poo in a pee stew.