Loading sequence of Security Programs

Just wondering when starting my pc I notice the various programs to load.
AV, Firewall and HIPS with the icons appearing in the taskbar. The sequence of these icons does not appear to be identical on each reboot.
Does the sequence of the appearance of the icons correlate to the programs loading? I suspect this is not the case but would like to know more.

Also, from a security point of view which program should start first and how can you tell and/or change this?

 

The sequencing of the icons that show up on the system tray should correlate to the point as to when they have been loaded into your PC memory from what I understand. I too have seen when they appear in different sequences and I think this is due to the arbitrary handling of the components by the operating system (sometimes one file is loaded prior to another and sometimes there is temporary "hold" on a particular file load causing the program to load later). I have seen the Norton AV icon change position from the first to the last icon on my system tray. You can find the startup sequence by clicking on the start icon, "RUN" then enter "MSCONFIG" and then click on the "services" and "startup" tabs to see which files are loaded at bootup.

As for sequence startup, the AV should be close to the first programs since it needs to inspect the hard drive boot files. Since you are not usually connected when you power up, the firewall can start up near the end of the sequence.

 

Keep in mind also that what you see in the tray is often just the GUI of an app and the service can actually start much earlier with no visible sign. For example, your AV or firewall service probably starts very early, then later the GUI finally loads and that's when you see the tray icon.

 

Excellent point. But there have been times when the AV icon doesn't show up at all even though it is listed in the task manager window.

 

Is this with Antivir Premium?Take a look here, http://forum.avira.de/thread.php?threadid=27484

 

Hello,
Acknowledged, indeed.
Very good point.
Cheers,
Mrk

 

I've had some success with WinPatrol free starting these programs in the sequence that I want.
Also, if I remember correctly, Comodo firewall and Online Armor 2 protect the pc as it is booting.
Probably many more firewalls do this. I just mentioned the 2 that I remember.

 

beethoven,

I'm not quite sure about this since I'm on my Linux machine right now - but as far as I remember this can be seen with the tool TopToBottomNT which I tried some years ago.