Does it matter what order your anti-virus program...

comes out in the bottom taskbar? It would be first for along time, then now it just sits between my anti-spyware program icon and comodo icon. I know it's prob a stupid question, but I would like to know why it did this, thanks.

 

well an AV could have a service and a systray icon. the service could load before the icon, so youre still protected.

 

Ok, so it's not a prob, nice to know, thanks.

 

i think he wants his icons in a certain way on his taskbar.

eg.

he wants his antivirus at the top,
then below that his firewall etc etc

to sort the order, obviously has something to do with boot order in a windows configuation file, i know there are freeware programs out there, try googling it that will sort the icons out in your particular order, but i dont know if the program will have to be a process running or just a one time thing.

have a look and good luck

 

sometimes i notice that icons load in different orders.
as soon as your pc loads the desktop open the task manager and check the processes for your av if they there its no problem.
your av should load first as a service.
lodore

 

your av should load first as a service.


That is normal for me, it would be first loaded and first in order of my anti-virus, anti-spyware and firewall. Now I'm a bit curious why it's between my antispyware and firewall now, it just doesn't make me feel safe.

 

if you check the processes in task manager in as soon as your desktop loads see if the antivirus processes are there before the firewall and antispyware ones then its still loaded first.
the service is the only part that matters
lodore

 

Better to check bootlog in boot.ini in MSconfig, then also you need to check it after hitting F8 on boot in Windows Advanced Options and/or run a program like Boot Log XP. Process Guard loads before Avira and Winamp loads before them. You can't tell anything from Task Manager except that the processes are running.

C:\WINDOWS\system32\DRIVERS\rdbss.sys Start: 10.249 sec
C:\WINDOWS\system32\drivers\procguard.sys Start: 10.253 sec
C:\WINDOWS\system32\DRIVERS\mrxsmb.sys Start: 10.261 sec
C:\WINDOWS\system32\Drivers\Fips.SYS Start: 10.265 sec
C:\WINDOWS\system32\DRIVERS\ipnat.sys Start: 10.267 sec
C:\WINDOWS\system32\Drivers\BANTExt.sys Start: 10.291 sec
C:\Program Files\AntiVir PersonalEdition Classic\avgio.sys Start: 10.293 sec

 

i personally would not mess around with any msconfig boot.ini files, especially not for 'order the icons show in tray'

 

i just dont think people should worry av's load faster enough and will protect you right away at login doesnt matter what order the icon loads.
i think more av's should load before you login like kis60/kav6.0
i know they do because say i get a scan to run at 11am on wednesday but no user is logged in it still runs the scan.
lodore

 

i didn't "mess around" with any boot.ini files. I simply checked the box to record a log of order in which everything starts up. This is what Microsoft says to do if you have any problems with startup items or simply questions about what boots when in the boot process. Microsoft says you can either check the box in boot.ini OR you can boot the computer, hit F8 early on, and on the menu check boot log and then go on with a normal boot and you will have ntbtlog.txt file for that boot. I found though that I had to do both things in order to see a current boot file. ntbtlog.txt that is generated by checking the boot log box under boot.ini in MSConfig shows the order of boot but doesn't show the time. So, I got a trial of XP Bootlog which gives the times and shows a diagram and analysis of Windows Boot. This is not manipulating boot.ini files which I would not do either as you can really mess up a computer if you don't know exactly what you are doing. This is simply giving you a log.

It does matter where in the boot process your AV loads. ProcessGuard is set to load as a service rather than automatic (which is default). Loading PG as a service makes it load very early and BEFORE my AV. That is how it should be. PG should load very early (the driver...not the GUI). I have seen from other's posts here that SSM loads even earlier in the boot process which is impressive indeed.

You can't judge by the order of the items in the systray or by opening Task Monitor. The GUI for PG loads VERY LATE in the boot process so the tray icon loads late but the driver (service) loads very early. A similiar situation may be the case for various AVs and that is why looking at a boot log (especially one that shows the time) is much more useful. But I think what loads, in what order, is more important for PG or SSM than for your AV which is secondary to those in importance.

 

I think this is where a lot of people get confused. Even though the GUI is not loaded, in this case the tray icon, dose not mean that the protection is not in force. Example, ZA Pro, the tray icon is slow to load but Vsmon\the service loads early so the protection is there.

 

Yes, I think you are right that many get that confused. As to ZA, I recall when I had it years ago that Vsmon (service) loads VERY early in the boot process.

Enable boot logging is explained midway down this page:

http://www.microsoft.com/technet/prodtechnol/winxppro/reskit/c29621675.mspx