Startup Managers?

A friend suggested that I get a program that can tell me exactly what processes start when my computer starts. When I open the Task Manager, I notice some processes running that I'm not familiar with. It was suggested that I get a program that can tell me what processes are running, what they are for, if they are necessary and that can give me the option to disable permanently, delete/restore, etc.

I find that my computer is running slower and that it could be due to unnecessary processes that are running. I understand that many programs that are installed can be automatically installed in the windows startup.

My question is whether it is a good idea to have a program that can manage these startup processes, and if so, which ones are good?

Any advice or suggestions will be greatly appreciated

 

Hi, mismis29. I'd suggest that you google reviews on the two products which I recommend below:

1) I have personally found 'Startup Mechanic' (freeware) to be quite superb. Basically, running a Startup Mechanic scan, gives you a list of all startup programs, which you can further sub-divide under the headings 'necessary' 'useful' 'useless' 'harmful' and 'unknown.' Clicking on each item under the original scan list reveals a summary of information held on the program, and any recommended action to take.

In operation, it reminds me of 'CCleaner' (a cleanup utility), in that although it has a smaller footprint and smaller scope than other programs on my PC which do the same thing, it has its own idiosyncratic detections, which the more thorough-going programs don't come up with. For example, it flagged up McAfee's Virus Scan Enterprise's Update GUI as potentially harmful to my machine, because it was associated with some parasite of some sort. I deleted the GUI in safe mode, without any subsequent probs, & now have fewer running processes when McAfee is running.

Theoretically, I could have disabled Update GUI through Startup Mechanic. I have disabled other programs through SM, & that has scuppered at least one of those completely, so that when I tried to re-enable it, no dice, but there was no harm to my PC (I think that it was a superfluous printer process).

Startup Mechanic can be downloaded at

http://www.startupmechanic.com/

2) Startup Inspector for Windows (freeware) is a more conventional startup manager program, which gives you a nice overview of your startup set-up, sub-divided under 'local machine' 'registry' 'startup folder' 'current user' 'run' 'run once' etc.

I am sure that there are commercial programs which offer features which may be more convenient. However, I find that using these two, & cross-referring with a 'Hijack This' scan, makes me feel more secure when needing to tackle anything on my machine which I don't want on there.

SI for Windows is at

http://www.windowsstartup.com/

Good Luck.

Kwesi

 

A free startup manager I have used for awhile now is Starter; http://members.lycos.co.uk/codestuff/features.shtml

 

One of the best startup viewers/manipulators is AutoStart Viewer from those authors of great software, DiamondCS.

http://www.diamondcs.com.au/index.php?page=asviewer

It's standalone, no install, and only about 51Kb

Cheers, TAS

 

If you want to find out what a process is, you can type its name in google.
Or, you could visit Black Viper's website. He has a very good listing there of most all of the common windows processes and what they do. Along with advice on whether it is safe to remove each one. There are other good articles there on optimizing windows too.

 

I can understand where mismis29 is coming from. When I got windows XP and I clicked on the process manager and seen about 4 svchost,exe runing I was like wow what are these and what can I disable. There was this program that would tell you what all these svchosts ar but I forgot the name of the program.

 

You don't happen to be in reference to this command "tasklist /svc" ?

 

A very useful tool that is good for looking at what's going on AND protection is WinPatrol. I love it! (Free too, unless you get the "Pro" version which gives you access to their database, which is a kind of glossary of crud that runs on your system.)

John
Luv2BSecure

.

 

Thanx for all the suggestions. I really appreciate it

Kwesi - I read some reviews regarding Startup Mechanic, and apparently it gives a lot of false positives.


Love2BSecure - Do you think that I would need WinPatrol if I already have SpywareBlaster? SpywareBlaster will also inform me when registry keys are being added/deleted. Or does WinPatrol only monitor your startup?

 

Another suggestion: RegRun Gold (not free)

http://www.greatis.com/regrun3.htm

 

I would agree with FanJ RegRun is an excellent product especially the new release currently in beta (free to try) http://greatis.com/regrun3detail.htm or sysinternals Autoruns located at
http://www.sysinternals.com/ntw2k/freeware/autoruns.shtml

RegRun is more of all in one product (startup, registry, file backup, antivirus/anti trojan/antispyware aid, etc...) where sysinternals basically just will show all programs that start when your computer starts which is what you said you really want to know.

Hope this helps,

Chris

 

RegRun4 Security Suite is out
What a prog!
http://www.greatis.com/security/news400.htm
Bolleke