How to stop O2 connection manager starting automatically when you start your laptop (Windows 7)
I recently bought an O2 PAYG USB Mobile Broadband dongle for use when I'm out and about but have to support clients. The USB Mobile Broadband dongle is a Huawei E1752Cu badged with O2.
I'm very happy with the USB dongle, it installed fine with Windows-7 64-bit and also on another laptop which runs Linux Ubuntu 10.10 (after following instructions How to use O2 Broadband dongle with Ubuntu 10.04)
O2 Connection Manager
The one irritation I have however is that the O2 Connection Manager insists on being in control of your network on windows-7, whether you need to use mobile broadband or not! The O2 Connection Manager settings have a tick box to prevent the software starting automatically when you start-up your PC....however, it is greyed out! Ha ha...nice one O2! :)
How to stop O2 Connection Manager starting automatically
From the Windows Start button, in the run box where you can search for files or commands, type 'msconfig' and select the Startup Tab. You will see lots of programs that Windows starts automatically when your PC starts up. Look for an item called TGCM from Telefonica and untick the box. When you restart your PC, you will now be free of O2 Connection Manager.
What about when you do want to use your USB Mobile Broadband dongle?
You still have the program in your programs list and can start it, on demand, by clicking on it in your windows Start Menu...
What if it's running and you want to stop it?
You will see a task running in your task tray.
Simply right-click it and you will see it gives you an option to Exit - this closes it down! :)
