• New auto startup programs
• New browser add-on’s like Toolbars or Browser Helper Objects (BHO)
• New Windows Services
• Creation of scheduled tasks on the system
• Changes to file type associations
• New registered ActiveX components
• Changes to the Windows Hosts file
• Changes to the Internet Explorer home and search pages
• Automatic Updating and Windows UAC changes
• Date and Time that programs are created on the system

That’s a lot of useful features, and free users are able to make use of all of them. The program does not come only with monitoring and notification options but also removable and restoration options.

It is for instance possible to remove or restore settings for most of the monitored items above. Lets take a look at the program’s interface.

WinPatrol uses tabs to group features together. Startup Programs is the starting tab, displaying all startup programs on the system. It is possible to enable “secret” startup locations as well for an extensive rundown on all items that are loaded on Windows start.

Action buttons at the bottom can be used to get additional information about an item, and to add, remove or disable startup programs.

Delayed Start is related to this tab. It is not necessary anymore for Windows 7 users but pre-Windows 7 users can use the feature to delay the start of startup applications to speed up the system start.

There is lots to explore; From listing the most recent files on the computer system, over displaying all active tasks and services to cookie filters, hidden file listings and the creation of a HiJack log.

Alerts and notifications are displayed directly on the screen, usually with yes or no options to allow or prevent the changes to the system.

WinPatrol is compatible with all 32-bit and 64-bit editions of the Windows operating system. A download is available at the developer website. There is also a portable version called WinPatrolToGo which offers most of the features of the core program.

Monitoring system changes should therefor concentrate on the core parts of the Windows operating system, say the Windows Registry and the system32 folder in the Windows directory. You find several applications that can monitor selected folders in real time, Winpatrol is one of them.

Tiny Watcher monitors system changes in a different way. It scans the important folders and Registry locations during initial setup and reports on the changes only when it is started again. This has the advantage that no application is monitoring the system in real time which consumes system resources. The disadvantage is that the user will be notified about changes after they happened.

Tiny Watcher is therefor not a real time system protection application, more of a tool that allows a forensic analysis of system changes. It still offers functions to deal with the changes that have been made to the system.

It provides access to a web search to gather information about a change but also to confirm, disable or remove it. Those actions can be problematic, it is generally not advised to delete items unless it is known that deleting them causes no harm. It is normally not a problem to delete a startup entry but it could be highly problematic to delete a file in a Windows folder.

Tiny Watcher works best when executed during system start or closely after. Each action is written in a log file which is – again – excellent for tracing a file or system change.

Tiny Watcher is hosted at Donation Coders. It runs on pretty much every Windows operating system, yes even Windows 95, including Windows XP and Windows Vista. It surely does not look pretty but I’d say functionality > looks all the time.

WinPatrol offers a new layer of defense against malware that was not detected by your security softwares. It monitors the different Startup possibilities, File Associations, IE Helpers, Scheduled Tasks and Services asking the user every time a program wants to add an entry to those places.

WinPatrol also displays all entries that already exist in those places giving you the opportunity to remove any entries that you want. The best thing to do would probably be to take a look at all menus that WinPatrol offers to make sure that only applications and services are started that you trust. You can remove everything else and let WinPatrol do the rest to make sure that they or other elements are not added again.

The freeware has a size of roughly 700 K and has to run in the background to be able to work correctly.