How to Stop Microsoft Teams From Launching Automatically at Startup

Microsoft Teams serves as Microsoft’s dedicated platform for professional communication, encompassing features like chat, audio conferencing, and video meetings. As a component of Microsoft 365, it frequently comes pre-installed on work computers, particularly for organizations that utilize Microsoft software extensively.

You may notice that Microsoft Teams launches automatically every time you start or restart your PC. While this can be quite convenient for frequent users, it might not be ideal for everyone, especially if you find it impacts your system’s startup speed and prefer to have it disabled.

The good news is that you can definitely stop Teams from starting up automatically. Here’s how you can do it if you want to manage its startup behavior.

Method 1: Through the Teams Application

One straightforward option is to disable the automatic launch within the Teams application itself. To accomplish this, click the three-dot menu located next to your profile icon in the upper right corner, and select Settings.

Within the General tab, you’ll find an option labeled Auto-start Teams. By simply unchecking this box, you can prevent Teams from starting automatically when you power up your computer.

Additionally, you have the choice to allow Teams to open in the background. This way, you won’t see the application window upon startup—but you’ll still be actively connected in Teams and will receive notifications. The window will only appear when you manually launch the application.

Method 2: Through Windows Settings

An alternative approach is to modify the startup settings directly through Windows. This method is especially useful if you wish to prevent multiple applications from launching automatically at boot time.

To access this, open the Start menu and search for Settings. In the Settings window, navigate to Apps > Startup. You can also quickly locate this by searching for “startup apps” in the Start menu.

In this section, you’ll see a comprehensive list of applications, which you can adjust individually to determine whether they should initiate at startup. To stop Microsoft Teams from launching automatically, simply toggle its setting to Off. For additional details and customization options, click the arrow next to the app name.