Preventing Application Startup [duplicate]

Question

Possible Duplicate:
How can I stop applications and services from running?

I have an LG-P690b and I've rooted the phone and un-installed several applications that I really didn't want. All is well, however, there is one application that I haven't removed because it seems to be started up by the system during boot.

In fact, it always shows that it's re-starting. Ideally, I'd like to remove this app but my fear is that if I do that it will bork the phone because it's been told to startup from somewhere else in the O/S.

My guess is that if the app was not set to start up automatically elsewhere in the O/S I could remove the app. To that end, is my assumption correct and where would the O/S maintain it's list of services to be started so that I could address this app once and for all.

What's the app? It's called GPS Navigator and it seems to be created by Bell. It will not work unless you have a data plan and I tend to use the native Google mapping programs (as they do).

So it's not a necessary application by any means. It's just that the darn thing is set to run as a service and that precludes me from jusr arbitrarily using root explorer to remove it altogether. My specific concern is that if it's set to run as a service, and the program has been removed, then the phone may not start.

How can I remove the auto-startup as a service for this evil app? Thanks in advance!

Answer 1

As eldarerathis commented: Your explicit question is already answered:

• How can I prevent applications from running on startup?
• how to identify and change apps which are set as startup items

However, I see an implicit question here as well: As you don't want to use this app at all, you might want to "get rid of it". While starting with ICS (Android 4.0) you can freeze (disable and hide) most system apps even without root, on previous versions that is only possible with root. Several apps are available on the playstore to help you with this (just search for bloatware).

The best known and highest recommended in this area is Titanium Backup which, as the name suggests, as a "side-effect" even manages your backups (and does this really good -- I use the Pro version now for about 2 years). With this app, you can even create yourself a shortcut to freeze/defreeze an app (in case of rarely used ones). Then there are also NoBloat and Root Uninstaller, amongst others.

So if you are rooted, and if you really do not need that app, freezing it is the safest way to ensure it doesn't start. I've heard of apps still auto-starting though they were "disabled" by those anti-autostart solutions. If, on the other hand, your device is not rooted -- you can only use the "simple no-root solutions" described "over there".