It would be nice to see ProcessGuard start up before any "user tools" were loaded. I have searched the forum here and found no way of doing this, so i went with SpeedStartup being it lets me have control over what and when any Auto startups take effect. I now have ProcessGuard as the first item to start then a few secs later my other tools follow. Works as it should now After doing this, I noticed my tools (Mail server, Winfast, Rollback, HotSync & Sound) were being by passed by the ProcessGuard. This is a Vary nice program and the above is the only thing i have found it lacking. v3.2
There's a program called Startup Delayer that allows you to control when programs are launched, which you can get from here. Is this a cosmetic issue? By that I mean is the ProcessGuard icon further to the left (on XP) or right (other Windows OSes) than the other programs? If so, then the above program I mentioned can "fix" this for you. That isn't really a problem as it doesn't affect the program's functionality.
I have a small amount of startup programs, about 4 icons appear on the tray at most. PG has always appeared first, a few times Outpost was beating it though. A way to try and get this to happen is to delete all files in the Windows\Prefetch folder. EVERY file. Then reboot a couple of times in a row, once first, and then after the PC loads all startup apps close them all and reboot again. The order may well change as Windows re-evaluates its internal optimizations. New files will appear in the prefetch folder for every app you run. There is also a Microsoft tool for Windows boot tweaking, just google for bootvis. Startup delayers are still the ultimate, but there is a bit of built in power already there Task Scheduler needs to be enabled.
Microsoft says this about Bootvis.exe http://www.microsoft.com/whdc/system/sysperf/fastboot/default.mspx
Yeah, Microsoft says that but it isn't true. Boot Vis dramatically improves boot time. Just try it. You will see. You have use it every few months as boot time will get slower over a period of time but Boot Vis fixes it each time. At least this was true on my host computer that had XP Pro SP1. On this current host computer with XP Pro SP2 it doesn't even show boot activity or driver delay and hitting "optimize" doesn't improve boot time but on my virtual machine with XP Pro SP1, boot time is improved when using "optimize". It doesn't help to delete everything in Prefetch and reboot and then close all applications in the systray and reboot again. PG is still number six to load. Always has loaded as number five or six. Winamp loads first which I have always thought odd, then nVidia settings, DeskSweeper, Proxomitron, OE Tool, ProcessGuard, Gadwin PrintScreen, NVidia NMixer, SB X-Fi, Safely Remove Hardware, Volume and then about a minute later KAV 2006. There is little variation in the load sequence and NOTHING CHANGED in the order after deleting everything in Prefetch, etc. But maybe I need to reboot several more times to see a change?
Whether or not Microsoft wants to admit it, BootVis does improve booting time. It allows you, as stated in the quote, to perform the optimization manually that the OS does "automatically". The problem lies in the fact that the OS doesn't seem to optimize boot performance that often, hence why BootVis can actually be useful.
There's another app here http://www.joejoesoft.com/vcms/113/ called startright I only tested a little bits of it. Warning: - this tools will grabbed all available startup program and place it in its registry ( make sure you backup ) - this tools may also cause other programs to slow down too. ( try to set 0 for process guard and 100 for others programs ) - Try not to remove processguard in startright. If you do so u will lost processguard startup commands but if u have backup then playing around with it still acceptable. I hope this helps a bit, for me I did this little test but never use it for long because I do not see the need to it. I trust all the software that is loading and never scan my computer I do it when it neccessary.
STARTUP ORDER FOR WINDOWS NT4/2000/XP http://forums.techguy.org/tech-tips-tricks/445140-tip-startup-order-windows-nt4.html BootExecute HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Session Manager\BootExecute Services User enters a password and logon to the system UserInit HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\WindowsNT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon\UserInit Shell HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon\Shell All Users-RunOnce HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\RunOnce All Users-Run HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run All Users-RunOnceEx HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\RunOnceEx All Users-RunEx HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\RunEx Current User-RunOnce HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\RunOnce Current User-Run HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run Current User-RunOnceEx HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\RunOnceEx Current User-RunEx HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\RunEx Common Startup Folder Startup Folder
Must be my tidy system The PG GUI isn't actually designed to try and load first, I can see why those with lots of programs loading are seeing PG load later than other programs. Using a specific tool might be the best way to go. nVidia settings has taken over 1st place on my system lately, the new drivers force a tray icon (its just that I never had one loading there before).
I've just recently re-instituted freebie Startup Delayer on my system to delay startup of everything but PG, RegDefend, and NIS 2006. Now icons for PG, Regdefend, and then NIS 2006 pop right up followed by the sequential startup of other pgms that I have delayed slightly. Without the delay, NIS 2006 was always the very last icon to appear. From watching the CPU busy time via Process Explorer, the CPU utilization settles down significantly more quickly (~ 20-30 seconds more) through using delays....at least on my system. It kinda changes my impressions that NIS was slowing me down. The reverse seems to be the case....other pgms are/were slowing down NIS for getting settled in. I have given PG, Redefend, NIS 2006 ten (10) seconds before starting a 2-second sequential load of other pgms. One thing I find intriguing is that even though PG's icon pops right up, PG continues to show "initializing" through the load/startup of all other programs and 15-20 seconds thereafter. I'm not sure what PG is doing throughout all that time. Is that to be expected I do wish software developers would stop writing startup code that immediately starts checking for updates, etc., when a program is started up. This, in my opinion, bogs down a reboot because firewalls and other programs get entangled in this immediate network activity. It is stupid for a program to jump in and start checking for and downloading updates during the reboot process. Even Symantec is smart enough to know that it needs to delay a few minutes before do its check.
