Removing entries from the list of programs that get started during system start will prevent them to be loaded after the next reboot. Inexperienced users should be very cautious on the other hand as the program displays important files that are needed to run the operating system properly.

The update to Autoruns 9.5 added a new tab to the startup manager. Autoruns now displays multimedia codecs “which are gaining popularity as an extension mechanism used by malware gains automatic execution.”

A click on the Codecs tab in Autoruns displays now system codecs as well. It is probably a good idea to hide Microsoft and Windows codecs from the list to make it more accessible.

Autoruns can be downloaded from the Windows Sysinternals homepage. It is compatible with client and server operating systems starting with Windows XP and Windows Server 2003.

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Administrators can remove services from Windows operating systems using the following means:

1. Command Line

The basic command to delete a service is sc delete followed by the short name of the service. The short name is not the name that is shown in the Services main menu. Administrators need to right-click the service, select properties and use the ServiceName in the general tab instead.

The command to remove the PC Tools Auxiliary Service would be therefor sc delete sdAuxService.

Windows 7 and Windows Vista users need to run the command from an elevated command prompt.

2. Software

Autoruns by Sysinternals can be used to remove most third party services from the Windows operating system. It does however not necessarily list all services. Users need to fallback to the manual service removal procedure if that is the case. Switching to the Services tab in the application will list the services that are recognized by Autoruns.

Selecting a service in that list and pressing delete will remove it from the Services menu.

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Autostart Explorer is a free portable software for the Microsoft Windows operating system that lists the programs and files that are started during Windows startup. The main advantage of this software program over more complex solutions like Autoruns is its simplicity. It does list all the relevant Windows startup entries divided into categories like Registry, startup folders or standard executables.

The program will list a short description of the currently selected Windows startup entry and the programs that are started during Windows startup. One major shortcoming is that the program does not provide the means to delete entries right away. The user has to either click on the Open Folder button to open the folder containing the program that gets autostarted or open a Registry editor manually.

While this could be meant as another means of protection to avoid accidentally deleting important startup entries it is a major nuisance for users who want to get rid of some of the autostart entries of their Windows operating system.

Another program that provides the means to delete entries is Starter. It is not as complex as Autoruns but provides more information and possibilities as Autostart Explorer. Probably the best program of its kind for inexperienced users.

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Enter Xecutor a multi-lingual (German, English and Spanish) software program that can be used to load software automatically at any time if the computer system is running. It can even import Windows autostart entries from both the Windows Registry and autostart file and include them in its own list although it is not recommended to import security software or system processes that way.

The main interface of Xecutor divides the applications into startup, shutdown and scheduler tabs which can be used to launch software automatically during startup, shutdown or user defined when the computer system is running.

Many of configuration options are available for all three types of situations. Executable files from the computer’s hard drive can be picked by using the file browser. It is possible to add parameters, to configure wait times and an option to minimize the software after launch.

Launch conditions can be defined. The day of the week the software should be launched can be configured. Applications can be set to only launch before or after a specific time. The Scheduler adds another option: The possibility to start an application at a specific time or in intervals. The last option is to add a question before and a message after execution.

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Some of the applications that are included in the Sysinternals suite should be installed on every computer such as Rootkit Revealer, Autoruns, Process Explorer and Regmon. This collection might confuse inexperienced users due to the sheer amount of exectuables that are listed in the main directory. It is difficulty to find out what some of the executables are doing, do you know for instance what psfile.exe will do ?

It would have been nice if at least a readme file would have been included to make it easier to understand the executables. A gui would have been even better. I would advise everyone to visit the Sysinternals website to lookup the programs before you execute them.

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First of all, you need a tool to check them out. You could use the run command and enter msconfig which should display the autostart items or you could use a third party tool like Autoruns from Sysinternals which i recommend for this task.

I will show you how to identify the programs that are running using either msconfig or Autoruns. For the sake of simplicity start msconfig using the windows run command and click on the startup item on the menu.

You see a list of programs that are loaded when windows is starting. You probably can identify some without looking them up, if that is the case and you don´t want them running on your system startup disable them.

Now, let us say you found an entry and don´t know why this is loaded by startup. Head to the CastleCops website and enter the filename that is loaded in the search field. If the file is found you see a description and a recommendation (status). In short, if the status shows Y=YES, you should keep it, if it shows N=NO you can disable it. There is also U=USER for users choice, X for definitely not required (often virii, malicious, spyware) and ? for unknown.

Read More:

autoruns
CastleCops

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This is a very useful tool that every windows user should run from time to time to check on his autostarts, I bet there will be more than you think there are. Removing some helps to speed up windows startup as well.

Simply run Autoruns and it shows you the currently configured auto-start applications as well as the full list of Registry and file system locations available for auto-start configuration. Autostart locations displayed by Autoruns include logon entries, Explorer add-ons, Internet Explorer add-ons including Browser Helper Objects (BHOs), Appinit DLLs, image hijacks, boot execute images, Winlogon notification DLLs, Windows Services and Winsock Layered Service Providers. Switch tabs to view autostarts from different categories.

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