Malwarebytes StartUpLITE identifies unnecessary startup programs on Windows
Man Malwarebytes are launching new products and updates like crazy these days. After pushing out a major update to one of our favorite antivirus programs Anti-Malware and the first Android version of the product, the company has released another program that you can download for free from the official website. [Update: it is actually an old application]
Malwarebytes StartUpLITE scans the PC's autostart locations for programs that do not really need to be started with the operating system.
The idea here is to provide you with recommendations to speed up the start of the system.
As you may know, it is not really necessary to start any third-party program with Windows. While it makes sense to start some, security programs come to mind, it does not really make a whole lot of sense to start others with Windows.
Programs that fall into the category are quickstarters that aim to improve the startup time of programs. If you only run those programs occasionally, you may want to consider removing the quickstarter from the system's startup process.
Malwarebytes StartUpLITE is a portable application. Just download it and run it from any location right away. It has a size of only 200 Kilobytes and is as lightweight as it gets.
The application scans the startup locations of the Windows PC for unnecessary items and displays those in its interface.
Depending on how you have configured the operating system, you may see startup items here or none at all.
It is interesting to note that StartUpLite uses a fixed list of programs to determine unnecessary startup items. You can access the whole list here. It contains programs such as Adobe Reader Speed Launch, AIM, CTFMON.exe, HP Software Update, IntelliPoint, Logitech Software Updater, jusched, Microsoft Office or Realsched.
Many of the listed programs are designed to speed up the start of programs they are associated with, while others are used to look for updates on the Internet.
It is up to you to disable programs that StartUpLITE displays to you. While it may be a good idea to remove quick start applications from system start, you may want to keep update applications running.
Verdict
The program has been designed for Internet users with little computing experience. If you are tech-savvy or a veteran user, you know that you can use tools like msconfig.exe or Autoruns to go through the list of startup items manually to disable those that you do not want loaded during startup.
And now that you have seen the list on the Malwarebytes website, you can use it to manually check the items that are started on your system against it.
The developers should consider adding more functionality to it. This could be a community powered reputation engine for all start up items for example.
Hello Mr. Brinkmann and all:
The free CCleaner Program also has such a system under “Tools”; then “Startup” where you can disable those program you don”t want to run at the start.
Works for me!
Get it at http://www.piriform.com
TR
It found two of those on the list on my had drive. What if you had all of them? How much faster would your computer start up by removing them….one second?…two?
But it’s not just startup: these things startup w/ your system and STAY, sucking up your resources! Do you really want Adobe Updater, Google Updater, iTunes helper, and all the useless OEM crap (and who knows what else!) running in the background always?! It gets to be a bit much! And it’s so ridiculous because there’s no WAY Adobe would let you open Reader without telling you to upgrade, with or without their updater sucking down your cpu cycles, RAM, and internet bandwidth.
(But really: msconfig is all you need. …or I guess taskman.exe in win8, to turn these startups off)
Dwight, it depends on the app that it’s preventing from starting. If you download the free program Soluto, it will scan your startups and tell you exactly how much bootup time you’ll save with each one.
Whatever happened to msconfig?
I’m all msconfig, too :) You can hardly mess it up (Startup, anyway), and it’s very nice/easy to uncheck all the Adobe crapware and other “program update checkers” (you’ve got to LOVE those, eh?) you find have made their way in somehow. (I’ve never installed google *anything*, and found a google updater in my startups!) Interesting, checking the msconfig every week over some morning coffee.
(ETA: maybe Google Drive. Crap; my bad!)
But LBR: I’m getting concerned about malwarebytes pulling a Norton on us. Too many extra “features” in what used to be a nice little malware detector. It’s even making the freeware version nearly-impossible to install; so many people I’ve sent there have downloaded the trial by mistake, and a few months later I get hate calls :( Someone tell mbam to stuff it and keep their innovations *separate* (…and the company honest! Dishonesty, like this bait-and-switch freeware/trialware version link is simple dishonesty, and I’m not supporting that much longer.)
You are so right when you mention Norton and all the features that it includes and what Malwarebytes has done to the new version. I would say that “if it’s not broken don’t fix it”…. adding to much stuff will just confuse the average user and who knows what could happen. You can always use other methods like AutoRuns, Msconfig exc, etc…….. The developers should consider adding more functionality features & options to it. This should be a community based reputation engine with cloud access for all start up programs and would provide a better service for us all.
It is still there, but you have to interpret results which many users cannot do on their own.
How about community driven log analyzer (include startup item) like http://www.hijackthis.de/ ;)
this particular Malwarebytes program is at least 4-5 years old…
You are right, corrected ;)
That reduces its usefulness somewhat..