Some Office 365 subscriptions automatically install Microsoft Teams along with the rest of Microsoft Office. Teams will automatically open at boot after it’s installed, but you can stop this by disabling the Team startup program.
Whether you use Teams or not, you can now disable the startup program easily—without actually signing into a Team. Locate the purple Microsoft Teams icon in your notification area or system tray. Right-click it and select Settings > Do Not Auto-Start Teams. You can then right-click the icon again and select “Quit.” You shouldn’t see Teams again until you choose to launch it yourself.
If you don’t see the icon, you may need to click the up arrow to the left of the icons on your taskbar to view additional icons. The icon will appear here as long as Microsoft Teams is running.
On Windows 10, you can also head to Settings > Apps > Startup. To quickly find this screen, open your Start menu, type “Startup” into its search box, and click the “Startup Apps” shortcut that appears.
Locate “Microsoft Teams” in the list of apps on the Startup pane. Click the switch to the right of it to turn it “Off.”
Windows also has startup program options in its Task Manager. It works the same way, and you can use either. Launch the Task Manager, click the “Startup” tab, locate “Microsoft Teams” in the list, and click “Disable.”
To open the Task Manager, right-click the Windows taskbar and select “Task Manager.” You can also press Ctrl+Shift+Esc.
You can also uninstall the Teams software if you don’t want to use it. You’ll have to uninstall two things to completely uninstall Microsoft Teams: both Microsoft Teams itself and the Teams Machine-Wide Installer.
While this will work, updates to your organization’s Office 365 software may cause Windows to reinstall Teams. Rather than fighting to keep Teams off your PC, you can just disable the Microsoft Teams startup program and forget about it.
RELATED: How to Permanently Uninstall Microsoft Teams on Windows 10
