Filed under: Utilities, Windows, Productivity, Commercial
Windows System Teardown: Part 2 - Absolute Startup Manager
by Jason Clarke Aug 24th 2005 at 9:30PM
I recently installed Absolute Startup Manager to try to take control of the huge number of utilities and applications that start up on this machine when I start Windows. The concept is great; Absolute Startup Manager gives a myriad of different options for configuring how programs start. From schedules to set certain apps to only start on certain days, to chaining applications together so that when one application is started others can be automatically started as well, this utility has almost every startup option you could imagine, and a few you probably hadn't even considered. It can also attempt to optimize your system startup by delaying applications varying amounts of time, as it is well known that although Windows is a multi-tasking environment, it truly performs better when it can focus on one task at a time.
Absolute Startup Manager also monitors the registry for programs that are stealthily set to start up at system start time, and gives you the option to allow or disallow this behavior. I have two other programs that provide the same functionality, so this is not a big deal for me, but a nice feature to include in a utility that is all encompassing for system startups. If you're having trouble with too many programs starting at once when you start up your Windows machine, it might be worth giving Absolute Startup Manager a look. They offer a trial version for 21 days, which should give you enough time to know whether or not this tool solves your startup woes. Personally, I'll be uninstalling, but only because I've made the decision to cut down comprehensively on the amount of software installed on my system. Once I'm lean and mean, I don't anticipate the need for this type of utility. But it's definitely a quality piece of software, and one I have no trouble recommending.
More in the Windows System Teardown series.