Filed under: Utilities, Windows
Monitor Programs Set to Start Automatically
by Jason Clarke Jul 16th 2005 at 5:49PM
One of my biggest pet peeves is software that when installed, assumes that I want to let it launch at startup, rather than when I want it to launch. Adobe Acrobat installs a utility to speed up launching Acrobat, for example, but all that really does is to pre-load parts of Acrobat, even when it's not needed. So, you end up with a computer that boots more slowly, and resources that are wasted in case you want to read a PDF. WinPatrol will tell you when selfish software like this is trying to let itself launch when Windows starts, and gives you control over whether or not you will allow it to do so. WinPatrol is free, and there is also a Plus version available for a fee with added features. 
So, just how good at time waster games are you? Think you've got the stuff? Well, The World's Hardest Game 2.0 doesn't think you do.
Yes, amazingly, it's possible to have a sequel to a game called "The World's Hardest Game". It doesn't seem logically possible, since if the first one was actually the world's hardest, how could another one come along and share the moniker? It made me doubt the name in the first place. That is, until I tried the game.
The mechanics of the game are very simple. You are a small red square, ...
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Rick Segal said 7:46PM on 7-16-2005
Jason,
I could be wrong (and it won't be the first/last time) but I believe Microsoft's spyware tool alerts you when somebody tries to do this as well. I think it will do this regardless of the app and it does it real time.
And I agree with you. This is a very 'rude' thing to do.
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Jason Clarke said 8:08PM on 7-16-2005
I think you're right; I had forgotten about that. Good tip!
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Zaid said 2:15PM on 7-17-2005
Hello Jason
On the exact same topic, from the guys at SysInternals.com there is Autoruns, now in version 8. It is freeware but requires some basic understanding before hitting the "Delete" key.
http://www.sysinternals.com/Utilities/Autoruns.html
I just used it a few minutes ago to take back my desktop pc under full control, it seems to be necessary about every 6 months or so.
Z.
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Jason Clarke said 4:09PM on 7-17-2005
Hi Zaid,
Autoruns looks pretty nice - a great way to see what is already set to automatically start, and take back your computer, as you said. I didn't notice whether it has a monitoring component to it, but if not, then you could use WinPatrol along with it to make sure that things don't get installed that get set to run on startup. Great find!
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Zaid said 4:54PM on 7-17-2005
No monitoring. You are right. OTOH that would imply... a memory resident application and that is precisely what I keep fighting against :-).
This little application does not even need to be installed. You can run it just off the 180KB zip download.
For the curious minded here is another link to an article from Autoruns author. It explains in some details what happens during logon.
http://www.windowsitpro.com/Articles/Index.cfm?ArticleID=44089&DisplayTab=Article
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Russell Limprecht said 9:56PM on 7-17-2005
I discovered about 1 yr ago. With Scotty and Winpatrol my system runs like a champ.
Great FYI.
thanks
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