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Forum Discussion
Completely disable "Dropbox on Startup"
When starting up my computer and logging in to the user account, I do NOT want Dropbox to be starting, at all. The files Dropbox needs are not even accessible unless I as the user take a particular ...
Dear Jane,
Thank you for your reply.
There has only ever been one Dropbox account connected with that installation on that computer. There have never been any other installations of Dropbox on that computer and there are no other Dropbox users sharing the machine, nor has Dropbox been installed from any other user accounts on the same machine.
The log contains private data, so I do not wish to post it here. It explains what files Dropbox is trying to access when getting a permissions error, and could be helpful in diagnosing the permissions error, but I don't need help on that. I know why it's getting the permissions error, and that lack of permissions is intentional. What I don't know is why Dropbox is trying to start up at all. Inspecting the file, I find no stack trace or other information indicating what is starting Dropbox or why it is trying to start up.
Even with the "Start Dropbox on system startup" setting UNCHECKED, Dropbox still had three services starting. Even with those services disabled, Dropbox still had tasks in Task Manager triggered by user login and at specific times. Even disabling the trigger in Task Manager, Dropbox apparently has some third way of automatically overriding user preferences to be starting something, even if what it starts is not meant to be visible to the user. These overrides are not accidental. They show what a charade the idea of user control is.
This behavior is in direct contradiction to the user setting and the application's communication to the user about how it will behave. In my view, this is as serious as Dropbox violating its published privacy policy and should be treated similarly by the regulatory authorities. This is also a red flag for cybersecurity and machine control. Until ALL the automatic user-preference overrides are fixed, I will recommend that security-conscious users avoid using Dropbox.
Finally, if the user login session for this Dropbox Forum website has timed out, attempting to click Reply after investing time in a carefully worded polite response causes that entire time and effort to be discarded without warning, returning to a login page with a temporary error message "Please sign in or register to access this page." That is rather frustrating. I recommend changing that so that the Reply button is disabled until after login, so less time and effort will be wasted and users might be less frustrated in responding.
Thanks!
Jane
Dropbox Staff
Dropbox StaffHey ben
I launched a boot trace to find the cause of the problem and I noticed that the corresponding option in the preferences of the application does not disable the startup at all. It has the only role of requesting a "quiet close" of the Dropbox processes during the startup phase. It also explain why you still see Dropbox in msconfig even after unchecking the box...
That said, Dropbox create a key for its own startup, hidden in Windows registry, the only option to fully disable Dropbox at startup is to remove it from there.
Lets find it in one of the following paths:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run
You should find the line:
Dropbox "C:\Program Files (x86)\Dropbox\Client\Dropbox.exe" /systemstartup
Backup it if necessary and just delete it. Done, no more Dropbox at startup!
Note: You may have to repeat the operation regularly as Dropbox updates could recreate startup reg key anytime 😋
I don't know what support system you use, but a ticket there might be a good path forward. I do think there are some changes needed to the Dropbox software here.
- JaneI'll be awaiting your next email!
In my first post, I wrote,
There are no tasks, Dropbox or otherwise, in the Startup tab of Task Managerbut I did not include a screenshot for that. Here it is:
In the nonpublic ticket, I learned that Dropbox has separate logins for the app, this Community (which is described as "social media"), and the support ticket system. This makes the process more confusing than necessary.
I sent the log file, but it was of no use; the support ticket agent could not figure out why Dropbox continued to start up and could only suggest that I go back to Microsoft.
This was a new installation of Windows on a brand new machine. Microsoft has already responded by making clear they have no responsibility for how third party apps behave. There is a legitimate use case for apps being able to embed themselves in various places in the startup process, and it is up to each app to provide effective user controls that actually make the desired changes in the app. If the app does not respect the user's choices, that's not Microsoft's fault; it's the app maker's. This really should be an FTC issue for violations of what Dropbox is telling the user!
