Anilrgowda

Question
[IMG]file:///C:/DOCUME%7E1/anil/LOCALS%7E1/Temp/moz-screenshot-5.jpg[/IMG][IMG]file:///C:/DOCUME%7E1/anil/LOCALS%7E1/Temp/moz-screenshot-6.jpg[/IMG]I would like to be more knowledgeable and have better control over the WinXpHome/Pro “Startup” programs. I have a single user machine with me as the user/administrator. Over the course of many installs/reinstalls of the 1) OS, 2) Software products and their iterations and, 3) Interminable Windows Updates many of these changes plant themselves firmly on the “Startup Line”. It makes no difference whether they deserve to be there or not, they just ARE!

The more astute computer user “carefully” guards the installation process and attempts to ward off these intruders, by deselecting or stopping the installation of Quick launch, Desktop or Startup Icons or some combination when appropriate. Often this solves the problem of overtaxed resources, sometimes not.

The methods I’ve become aware of to Stop, Pause, alter, or Remove these culprits seem to vary based on what level of sophistication and familiarity the “Instructor/adviser or Forum” appear to have. Some programs already removed or stopped in the Start sequence seem to have minds of their own, such as Realsched.exe, Justched.exe or Wfxsnt40.exe and its sister Wfxswtch.exe. And, install themselves if you use them once or not at all. Sometimes you can find their home and correct the issue, many times not. These are just samples of those that particularly bother me, others must have their favorites as well!

So for the purposes of this discussion let us make the assumption “Caveat Emptor” for the less adventurous or knowledgeable. I’m looking for serious but usable information.

I have read the suggestions of EE Familiars: Gemarti, PeteLong, Sramesh2K et all and with some variations I have concluded the most common methods I am aware of are:

a) Use MSCONFIG from the Run menu and uncheck the undesired start programs (assuming that they are not required to make the system operate correctly). This however puts you in the Selective Start mode. This appears to be a temporary solution and will invariably come back later. Many advisors offer this solution first & foremost.
Unsatisfactory.

b) Use Services.msc from the run menu and uncheck the undesired start programs (same caveat as above), though many of these changes become undone with the next startup/reboot of your machine. If however, you are knowledgeable enough to select the correct disable sequences in the appropriate panels, you may succeed using this method.
Better

c) Use Regedit from the run menu and go into the correct Registry Tree and search for the culprit here. This is where it gets serious for all of us but the weak kneed. A few Forums and sites suggest reaching into on of the following Trees:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\Curre ntVersion\Run
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\Curre ntVersion\RunOnce
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\Curr entVersion\Run
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\Curr entVersion\RunOnce
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\Curr entVersion\RunOnceEx
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\Curr entVersion\RunServices and so on….

The instructions generally advise deleting the offending registry entry and moving on. How do you determine which registry needs action? One? both?, Which processes?, Is this a case of wearing both a Belt and Suspenders?
Some Advisors argue against deleting the entry, deleting the key, move Icons to Temp folders or suggest putting some sort of “REM” remark to prevent activity from occurring. (Is that possible?)
Others avoid the registry like it’s diseased. The suggestions/recommendations are as varied as recipes for boiling water.

Of course there are always numerous Start-up Utilities that abound on the Internet which offer to accomplish your goals, each espousing its respective virtues, but isn’t that jumping from the frying pan into the fire? Something else to sit in the start-up box?
Am I looking for “one size fits all”? maybe, or better yet just something that is more to the permanent shade of fixes, yet with the opportunity to be undone in the future.

As a full time member I seek the guidance from the best resource on the NET.

soln
XP does not require any startup application (unlike the 9x systems). At the very least, you must have your firewall and anti-virus at startup. One way you can guard the startup is to check for options within the application itself. Well built application provides you the option to disable running at startup. Some do, some don't have the option.

Secondly, the RUN keys can be protected using registry permissions. Denying Write access prevents any application from adding their entry at startup, but you will need to undo the changes again if you want to add a Legit application to the list.

Another option is to use a third-party Startup monitoring utility which will notify you if an apppication/trojan/spyware is writing to the RUN keys. This takes some % of your CPU, but does not matter much, if you're looking for security.

Finally, use a Limited account for normal operation. This is the best of all the advice I can give, coz I (we) have seen enormous cases where the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE RUN and Userinit are altered by spyware and causing all sorts of problems in Windows (spyware just uses your credentials to access the HKLM registry keys). This means, if you're using a limited account, trojans and other malware can do very less harm (in comparion)

One good utility for managing Startup is Autoruns, from Microsoft TechNet: Windows Sysinternals


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