gHacks technology news » startup http://www.ghacks.net A technology blog covering software, mobile phones, gadgets, security, the Internet and other relevant areas. Tue, 24 Nov 2009 09:43:13 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.6 en hourly 1 Windows Startup Manager http://www.ghacks.net/2009/03/04/windows-startup-manager/ http://www.ghacks.net/2009/03/04/windows-startup-manager/#comments Wed, 04 Mar 2009 10:12:10 +0000 Martin http://www.ghacks.net/?p=10903 Autoruns is for many experienced computer users the only software program worth mentioning when it comes to managing Windows startup settings. Inexperienced users on the other hand are often overwhelmed by the sheer functionality of the startup software and prefer software programs that display less information and concentrate on the core: listing Windows startup programs.

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.

windows startup

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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]]> http://www.ghacks.net/2009/03/04/windows-startup-manager/feed/ 3 Autostart applications if Caps Lock is on http://www.ghacks.net/2008/03/03/autostart-applications-if-caps-lock-is-on/ http://www.ghacks.net/2008/03/03/autostart-applications-if-caps-lock-is-on/#comments Mon, 03 Mar 2008 17:06:37 +0000 Martin http://www.ghacks.net/2008/03/03/autostart-applications-if-caps-lock-is-on/ Ever felt the need to start an application during Windows startup every now and then but not all of the time ? Maybe you want to quickly start and play the new game that you recently installed, or just browse through your emails as quickly as possible without having to go the extra mile and start the application manually.

Capster could be your salvation. It’s a tiny application with a size of only five Kilobyte that creates shortcut links to applications or a batch file that you select in the main interface. The user can choose to automatically start the application if the Caps Lock key is on or off which does make a difference.

The Caps Lock key on my computer for instance is turned off by default and I had to press the key during startup (after the Windows Logo) to autostart the application that I had selected.

capster

The Create Shortcut button creates the link which has to be added to the Windows Autostart folder.

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]]> http://www.ghacks.net/2008/03/03/autostart-applications-if-caps-lock-is-on/feed/ 11 Get rid of unnecessary system startups http://www.ghacks.net/2007/10/31/get-rid-of-unnecessary-system-startups/ http://www.ghacks.net/2007/10/31/get-rid-of-unnecessary-system-startups/#comments Wed, 31 Oct 2007 11:30:41 +0000 Martin http://www.ghacks.net/2007/10/31/get-rid-of-unnecessary-system-startups/ Every software that is starting during system startup is delaying the system boot process. You might not notice an increase if the software is small but there are applications like those from Norton for instance that can delay it by more than a minute. It is therefor always a good idea to check which softwares are starting during Windows startup and get rid of any that are not necessary.

Starter is a sweat little application that was designed with usability in mind. It displays all softwares that are started during system startup displaying the information in a very convenient way. The left sidebar displays the possible locations and applications that are started from there while the right main window is displaying details about all softwares found in there.

The main window displays information about the location of the application, startup parameters and from where it is started. Right-clicking an entry displays a context menu with options to disable or delete it, perform a search on the Internet, launch it and to explore the file folder or registry.

system startup

The main question is of course which softwares can be securely removed from system startup. This is not that easy to answer. A rule of thumb would be to keep all security related entries, all entries that deal with hardware and get rid of the rest unless you use the software regularly and recognize a positive effect if it is started during system startup.

Starter lists all running processes in another tab offering better information than the Windows task manager. It displays for instance the path of the executable of the process, the priority, the memory usage and modules that are used by the process.

The third tab displays all Windows services sortable by many means. Started services use a green icon and a Running text next to them which improves usability here as well. Users can again use the right-click menu to stop and start services and set their status to automatic, manual or disabled.

The Internet search offers some unexpected features as well. The user has the choice to query several search engines instead of simply querying Google with the name of the service.

Read More:

Starter
via Freeware Genius

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]]> http://www.ghacks.net/2007/10/31/get-rid-of-unnecessary-system-startups/feed/ 7 How to remove ctfmon.exe http://www.ghacks.net/2007/10/22/how-to-remove-ctfmonexe/ http://www.ghacks.net/2007/10/22/how-to-remove-ctfmonexe/#comments Mon, 22 Oct 2007 20:25:54 +0000 Martin http://www.ghacks.net/2007/10/22/how-to-remove-ctfmonexe/ You might have noticed a process with the name ctfmon.exe when opening the task manager wondering what it was doing and if it was malicious or harmful in any way. A quick search on the web revealed that it is a Windows process for advanced text services. You furthermore might have noticed that this process activates itself again even if you use msconfig to disable it from starting with Windows.

Before I’m going to explain how to remove ctfmon.exe I’m going to explain why you should not remove it. You should not remove ctfmon.exe if you use language schemes, translations, East Asian languages, speech or text recognition and other alternative input technologies.

Most users do not need it and you can free about 8 Megabytes of Ram if you remove the file. To do that you have two possibilities. User who do not want to change settings in the Control Panel could deactivate it by using a software called Ctfmon Remover which removes the process with the click of the mouse button.

If you are one of those users who would like to know where to remove ctfmon.exe in Windows you do the following. Open the Control Panel, click on Regional and Language Options, on the Language tab there, then on the Details button under Text Services and Input Languages and there on the Advanced tab again.

Check the Turn off advanced text services box and ctfmon.exe will not be loaded during system startup anymore. You can activate it the same way by unchecking the box.

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Ctfmon Remover

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]]> http://www.ghacks.net/2007/10/22/how-to-remove-ctfmonexe/feed/ 31 Startup Control Panel and Startup Monitor http://www.ghacks.net/2006/08/11/startup-control-panel-and-startup-monitor/ http://www.ghacks.net/2006/08/11/startup-control-panel-and-startup-monitor/#comments Fri, 11 Aug 2006 06:13:12 +0000 Martin http://www.ghacks.net/2006/08/11/startup-control-panel-and-startup-monitor/ Startup Control Panel and Startup Monitor are actually two programs not just one. The first, Startup Control Panel, is a 59K freeware that scans various paths and registry entries for programs that are run at startup. This is great if you need a quick basic overview, if you need an in depth overview try autoruns from sysinternals. Startup Control Panel lists three registry entries and two paths, those are the locations where most programs are autostarted.

You are free to disable, edit, rename and create new entries to the various autostart lists. As I said, if you need a quick overview this might be worth a look. Simply download, unpack and run it from that location. No installation is needed at all. Startup Monitor is running as an background task monitoring the various autostart locations and reporting changes to it.

This means that it will create a popup information as soon as a program tries to create an entry in those autostart locations. The name of the software and its location are displayed in the popup and you have the option to allow or disallow this entry to be written. The installation is as easy as that of Startup Control Monitor: Download, unpack, run, that´s all there is to do.

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