The features of WLM allow the ability to sync as many as 200 different folders with up to 100,000 files in each folder. The maximum file size allowed currently is 40 GB. Using SkyDrive in the Cloud, there is a limit of only 5 GB of files. Remote Desktop use through WLM and Windows Live services is much more practical for PC to PC synchronization rather than using SkyDrive.
WLM can pose certain limitations when synchronizing encrypted file requiring passwords and this can present time-consuming problems for many users. Never fear, there is a solution!

There is a simple way to prevent Windows Live Mesh (WLM) from starting at Windows 7 login and still be able to do an automatic sign-in with a manual start. This is helpful when synchronizing encrypted volumes that require passwords post- logon. Otherwise, WLM will fail at the login and will not be able to find the specified file that is to be synchronized.

The first step is to uncheck the “sing-in-automatically” option in Windows Live Mesh in order to disable start at login. The automatic sing-in option results in WLM writing the startup run registry key when executed. This is Windows Live Mesh with automatic sign-in checked:

The key is written by WLM when executed with the sign-in option checked:

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run]

“WLSync”=”\”C:\\Program Files (x86)\\Windows Live\\Mesh\\WLSync.exe\” /background”

To fix, use the steps as follows:

• By creating a batch file (simply create a blank text file and rename it to name.bat), execute the command: Reg Delete “HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run” /v WLSync /f
• Run the script at Windows 7 logoff by typing “Gpedeit.msc” in the start menu run box.

Press Enter and this opens the Group Policy Editor. The next step is to navigate to the appropriate file location on the left pane. Navigate to “User Configuration\Windows Settings\Scripts (Logon/Logoff)” in the left pane:

Go to Logon/ Logoff in the right pane and then open properties by double-clicking “Logoff.” Load the “Add a Script dialog” by clicking Add and then click Browse to select the script you designed in the first step. This will place it in the “Script Name” field Click “OK” in the Add a Script dialog and this will confirm and take you back to the properties window. After clicking “Apply,” and closing the policy editor.

This is an extremely advantageous and easy fix if problems are being encountered with Windows Live Mesh when trying to synchronize encrypted files.

The theory behind Startup Delayer is simple. Delay the auto start of programs in Windows to avoid bottlenecks during the start of the system.

Most versions of the Windows operating system offer no program loading priorities during startup. Microsoft has changed that behavior for services under Windows 7 and Vista, which can be configured to start delayed.

Programs on the other hand that are added to the startup locations of the operating system cannot be configured for delayed startup.

That’s where the third party application Startup Delayer comes into play. It offers to switch programs from normal startup to a delayed startup.

All programs are listed under normal startup by default, but can be moved to the delayed or disabled groups instead. Programs in the disabled group are not started at all, while delayed programs are started when the system meets specific requirements. The default requirement is a 90% idle disk activity. This can be changed to a cpu idle threshold or a manual delay directly in the main application window.

Delayed programs are displayed in order and you may need to use drag and drop to bring the programs in the right start-up order.

You can switch between user accounts at the top, handy if you need to change autostart items for other users as well.

Individual program properties are opened with a double-click on a program in the startup list.

Startup Delayer displays many information about the selected program which may aid you in identifying programs. The delay, wait and advanced tabs offer additional configuration options.

You can switch between automatic and manual delay under the delay tab. Those are basically the same options as in the main application window, with the difference that the pulldown menus under Manual Delay are now listed as hours, minutes and seconds (which they are not in the main interface which can leave users wondering what the numbers stand for).

The wait tab allows you to configure if startup delayer should wait for a specific event before the next application in order will be launched. The program can wait until the delayed startup program has terminated or until a user confirmation.

The advanced tab finally offers controls to change the window state and program priority plus options to launch the program only on specific days of the week.

The free version of Startup Delayer offers two additional features. You can access all running tasks and system services in tabs in the program interface. You can use the information to find out if all of your startup programs are running on the system. A handy feature is the ability to search for a specific process or service on the Internet.

How effective is it to delay the startup of applications? That depends largely on the computer system and the number of applications in the various autostart folders.

Users benefit the most if they have lots of applications in their autorun folders. Even more so if the computer is not the fastest. You may not benefit at all from delayed startups if you have only one or two programs in your autorun folder. It may even slow down their start up a little bit considering that Startup Delayer is added to the system start as well.

The interface language can be changed in the program options, but the quality of the translations is bad as machine translation was used by the developer.

You can download Startup Delayer from the developer website.

What if you could bundle applications together so that one click – one execution – will open them all. Lacuna Launcher is a contribution to Donation Coder’s NANY 2009 challenge. What does it do? The portable software will launch all applications that are specified in a text document that gets loaded during application start.

Unzipping the software will reveal the application itself and a text document that contains a link to Notepad. This is being used as an example and can be modified accordingly. Just place one application per line including its full path in the text document. You can also point the application to shortcuts in case you want to launch applications with startup parameters.

There is also the possibility to start Lacuna Launcher with startup parameters. You can use it to launch application groups by pointing each shortcut to a different text document on the computer. The shortcut makes use of the two optional parameters delay and pause. Delay specifies the time in seconds before the first application will be started while pause defines the idle time between the application launches.

Lacuna Launcher can be used to delay the startup of applications during Windows startup by moving a shortcut to the application into a Windows startup folder. This is an alternative to the startup software we covered earlier today.

Delayed Exec is a free software program to delay the execution of startup programs. It displays all applications that are started during system start including their title, command and the user.

Applications can be moved into the delayed startup applications table where they will be executed in order using the delay interval specified by the user. The delay interval is set in milliseconds, the default being 15000.

The startup software is compatible with Windows XP and Windows Vista. It requires the Microsoft .net Framework 3.5. An alternative to Delayed Exec is Startup Delayer which does not require the Microsoft .net Framework.