Disable Program Compatibility Assistant

Windows Program Compatibility Assistant can be a real pain in the ass when you often use programs, scripts or applications that runs just for a second or two and then terminates itself. It can be also painful, when you run some software by a mistake and quickly close it right after starting. In each such scenario you’ll be nagged with a stupid message asking, if you want to run this program again.

To completely disable Program Compatibility Assistant follow these simple steps:

  1. Run Registry Editor (regedit.exe).
  2. Navigate to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\AppCompat branch
  3. Create new key named DisablePCA of dword type and give it 00000001 value

Or… save the following code as a .reg file somewhere:

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\AppCompat]
"DisablePCA"=dword:00000001

Then double-click saved file and confirm addition to Windows Registry.

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