Is it possible to kill a process on its startup?

I have to run a program, a virus scanner, on my work laptop. It is awful, so amazingly bad that it slows down everything else I try to run. It's made me so much less productive - however, due to bureaucracy, I have to run it. When I kill it in process explorer, it starts up again a number of times instantly, and then again at random intervals after that. If I uninstall it fully, I get flagged and get in trouble.

At the moment, I am opening up process explorer every 15-20mins and killing it manually.

Is there a better way?

Thanks.

Simon Kiely

Posted 2016-07-19T12:26:28.270

Reputation: 145

Since you are required to use it on a work computer, this question is about bypassing a job requirement. I think it should be closed. You should take this up with administration. – Xavierjazz – 2016-07-19T14:06:01.770

I'm voting to close this question as off-topic because it is about circumventing workplace policies specifically those regarding virus scan software. http://meta.superuser.com/questions/9252/what-is-the-definition-of-corporate-it-support/9253#9253 The fact that you have been warned about uninstalling the software should be telling you something.

– Mokubai – 2016-07-19T14:07:27.110

Answers

You can create a group policy to block specific applications.

Start -> Run -> gpedit.msc
Local Computer Policy
- Computer Configuration
  - Windows Settings
    - Security Settings
      - Software Restriction Policies
        
        Additional Rules
Right click Additional Rules -> New Path Rule
Browse to the application you want to ban
Ensure Security Level is at its default Disallowed
Click OK

Ian Boyd

Posted 2016-07-19T12:26:28.270

Reputation: 18 244

You mention Process Explorer - is that the sysinternals one? If so locate the process in the main window, right click on it and choose "Suspend"

From the help file:

If you want a process to become temporarily inactive, so that a system resource such as network, CPU or disk, becomes available for other processes, you can suspend the process. Suspended processes show in a dark grey color. To resume a suspended process chose the Resume item from the process context menu.

noonand

Posted 2016-07-19T12:26:28.270

Reputation: 295

If it is McAfee then you can't suspend it IIRC. – DavidPostill – 2016-07-19T12:51:02.387

@DavidPostill Can't speak to MacAfee but when running PE elevated I was able - as a test - to suspend all the Symantec processes – noonand – 2016-07-19T12:55:42.813

I didn't have admin on that work PC, so maybe that was why. I couldn't kill it either. They were time scheduled daily scans so we just used to restart :) – DavidPostill – 2016-07-19T12:58:31.360

Well, a way could be: Disabling the app on msconfig, so it will not load on start-up , add a bat file who will run at the start-up with:

@echo off

ping Freeip -n 1 -w milliseconds > nul

%path of the exe app%.

exit

Alejandra Moreno

Posted 2016-07-19T12:26:28.270

Reputation: 682