Discovering and controlling load order of services

Is there any way to find out the order of loading services (and/or processes) when one's XP computer boots up?? I'm asking because many firewalls now are running as services and the time the FW service loads will determine when the protection of the FW starts.

Are there any ways to find out and even control the load order? Any ini file or something like that, something that may be amended??


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Have a look at the "layout.ini" file that resides within the Prefetch folder.

It should open with notepad.

C:\Windows\Prefetch

 

Have a look at Icesword the Kernal module will show you the load order of drivers.

Changing this order, I cannot remember correctly. I know each service is placed into a group, then each group is started in order:- HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE / SYSTEM / CurrentControlset / Control / serviceGroupOrder

 

OK, I found it. It shows at the top: "Optimal LayoutFile". Then a long list of files.

1) Is this the *actual* order of boot-up, or just a hoped-for order??

2) My firewall (OA) program files seem to loading rather late, about 3/5 of the way down the list. I do not see any OA drivers listed earlier (but I haven't gone over with a fine tooth comb). Is this the actual load sequence?

Can you decipher it?

Sam


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No sorry I can't.

All I know is that Perfectdisk, if set to control the layout.ini, defrags using the order of the layout.ini for optimal boot.

PD Article

 

I checked this registry item and yes, there is a list of services within the serviceGroupOrder entry.

Now, the question: can I alter this list, these entries by moving one up or down, without messing up everything (causing lock-up, freeze, no boot, etc)??

Do you or anybody know?


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Thanks. I may give this a try. ( Another application!! Ugh.) I'm trying to do this manually, if possible.


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I would not change the order within that key, unless you know what you are doing.
Is the service you are checking/ wanting to change within a group?
Use Autoruns and see what group the service is in (run Autoruns, go to the services tab, double left click the service, this will bring up the reg entries, have a look for a "Group" entry)

Example:-





Edit:-
The firewall may already be protecting (as soon as it is possible).
Which firewall are you looking at?

 

http://www.microsoft.com/technet/sysinternals/utilities/LoadOrder.mspx

 

I'm trying to load Online Armor as soon as possible.

On the key you originally mentioned,
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\ServiceGroupOrder (list)
I have the following under the "list" entry:

System Reserved
Boot Bus Extender
System Bus Extender
SCSI miniport
Port
Primary Disk
SCSI Class
SCSI CDROM Class
FSFilter Infrastructure
FSFilter System
FSFilter Bottom
FSFilter Copy Protection
FSFilter Security Enhancer
FSFilter Open File
FSFilter Physical Quota Management
FSFilter Encryption
FSFilter Compression
FSFilter HSM
FSFilter Cluster File System
FSFilter System Recovery
FSFilter Quota Management
FSFilter Content Screener
FSFilter Continuous Backup
FSFilter Replication
FSFilter Anti-Virus
FSFilter Undelete
FSFilter Activity Monitor
FSFilter Top
Filter
Boot File System
Base
Pointer Port
Keyboard Port
Pointer Class
Keyboard Class
Video Init
Video
Video Save
File System
Event Log
Streams Drivers
NDIS Wrapper
COM Infrastructure
UIGroup
LocalValidation
PlugPlay
PNP_TDI
NDIS
TDI
NetBIOSGroup
ShellSvcGroup
SchedulerGroup
SpoolerGroup
AudioGroup
SmartCardGroup
NetworkProvider
RemoteValidation
NetDDEGroup
Parallel arbitrator
Extended Base
PCI Configuration
MS Transactions

Can you decipher if any of these are related to OA?

(Don't spend a lot of time on this. )

SamSpade

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Thanks, Espresso (can you send me one right about now?? ).

OK, I ran this little prog and it shows a list of drivers and services. I am assuming that this list is *the order* of loading/starting my drivers and services (??). Yes?

(Where's that help file.... )

Is there any way to CHANGE this load order without blowing up my computer??


Sam

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If the driver loads as Boot, then it's one of the first to load (Boot->System->Automatic). You might be able to safely load a System driver as boot with no ill effects but some of them might depend on other generic drivers like fltrmgr and won't work so it's usually best to leave them as they are.

 

The OA service is showing as being in the NetBIOSGroup.
edit:
OA also has a driver (OAdriver.sys) loading, this is in the PNP_TDI group, so changing the service startup will probably cause problems.

 

Sounds smart.


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I agree. Thanks for the interpretation.


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