StartUp Organiser
Reviewed by Terry Bibo
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