StartUp Organiser

StartUp Organiser is a program that lets you control what programs start up automatically every time you start your computer, but provides refinements that I have not seen in other programs of this nature that I have reviewed in the past - such as Startup.cpl and its associate Startup Monitor, EasyCleaner and Spybot Search & Destroy.

It has a familiar Explorer interface that displays startup categories in the left pane. These categories include the Registry, Win.ini, and Services for XP. Sub-categories are All users, Current user, and Other users. The contents of each category are displayed in the right pane and will typically include essential utilities that Windows requires, programs that you have chosen to open at startup, leftover programs from software you are no longer using, and possibly malware that has been installed without your awareness. Items can be added to or removed from any selected category, moved between categories, edited, or temporarily disabled.

A useful feature is its controlled startup category in which programs can be prioritised in order of startup, and time intervals set between programs. Additionally, programs in this category can be set not to load at startup by holding down a control key. This provides for the creation of startup profiles for users wanting to use complex or resource-hungry applications and prevent lesser important programs from loading with them.
StartUp Organiser monitors for third-party changes to startup configuration and will raise an alert. Its Startup Guard provides some protection against trojans and viruses by monitoring other ways of opening programs in your startup list. And it provides easy access to msconfig, regedit, and sysedit without having to use the Start > Run routine.

Overall it is a neat and functional approach to controlling the startup procedure but requires more computer awareness than many users will have or wish to acquire. Its appeal will be to the more technical user, who should be aware of or at least prepared to investigate the free programs I mention in paragraph one.

 
StartUp Organizer v. 2.5 runs under Windows 95/98/Me/NT4/2000/XP/2003, costs $25(US) and may be purchased securely online at http://www.metaproducts.com/mpOrders.html.

Terry Bibo bibo63 at dodo.com.au
(please add the appropiate symbol)
http://members.dodo.net.au/~bibo63

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