How to Stop Microsoft Teams from Starting Automatically

Speeding Up Your Computer’s Boot Time

Microsoft Teams has become the default communication platform for thousands of businesses worldwide. Because Microsoft wants you to be available for calls and messages the second you sit down at your desk, Teams is programmed to launch itself in the background the moment you turn on your Windows PC or Mac.

While this is convenient if Teams is the very first app you check every morning, it is highly frustrating if you only use Teams occasionally, or if you are using a personal computer where you do not want work notifications interrupting your weekend. Furthermore, Teams is a resource-heavy application. Forcing it to load alongside the rest of your operating system during the boot process can significantly slow down how long it takes for your computer to become usable.

Stopping Microsoft Teams from launching automatically on startup is a simple process, but the method differs depending on whether you are using Windows 11 or a Mac.

Method 1: Using the Teams App Settings (Windows & Mac)

The easiest way to stop Teams from opening automatically is to change the preference inside the application itself. This method works identically on both Windows and macOS.

1. Open the Microsoft Teams application.
2. Look in the top right corner of the window, next to your profile picture, and click the three horizontal dots (…).
3. From the drop-down menu, select Settings.
4. A new Settings window will appear. Ensure that General is selected in the left-hand menu.
5. Look for the section labelled Application.
6. You will see a checkbox labelled Auto-start application. Untick this box.

You can now close the settings window. The next time you restart your computer, Teams will remain closed until you manually click its icon in your Start menu or dock.

Method 2: Using the Windows 11 Task Manager

If changing the setting inside the app does not work (which occasionally happens if your company’s IT department has locked down certain application settings), you can forcefully block the app from starting using the Windows operating system itself.

1. Right-click anywhere on the empty space of your Windows 11 Taskbar (the bar at the bottom of the screen).
2. Select Task Manager from the context menu.
3. In the Task Manager window, look at the left-hand sidebar and click the icon that looks like a speedometer. This is the Startup apps tab.
4. You will now see a list of every program that tries to run when you turn on your PC. Scroll down this list until you find Microsoft Teams.
5. Right-click on Microsoft Teams and select Disable.

The “Status” column next to Teams will change from “Enabled” to “Disabled”. Windows will now physically prevent the application from launching during boot, regardless of what the internal app settings say.

Method 3: Using macOS System Settings

If you are using a Mac and the internal app setting failed, you can revoke the startup permission using macOS System Settings.

1. Click the Apple Logo in the top left corner of your screen.
2. Select System Settings…
3. In the left-hand sidebar, click on General.
4. In the main window, click on Login Items.
5. Look at the top list labelled “Open at Login”. These are the apps that launch when you start your Mac.
6. If you see Microsoft Teams in this list, click on it once to highlight it.
7. Click the small minus (-) button below the list to remove it.

If Microsoft Teams is not in the top list, scroll down to the section labelled Allow in the Background. Find Microsoft Teams in this list and toggle the switch next to it to the Off position. This prevents the app from running any background update processes while the main app is closed.