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Mike Lin has a companion program that I also recommend, StartupMonitor. It keeps track of any attempt to add a new item to your startup lists and it pops up and asks you if you really want "evil_gambling_plugin.exe" to run at startup.

It's kind of like ZoneAlarm, but for your startup processes.

You can get this and other utilities at his website

I suggest you check out a pair of wonderful little tools called StartupMonitor and Startup Control Panel. The former will alert you when things try to register themselves as 'auto-startup' items in the registry and give you the option to shoot them down, and the latter will allow you to unregister already existing auto-startup items in the approximately seven different places they can lurk. It is very useful for eliminating and avoiding problems like this.

I suggest you check out a pair of wonderful little tools called StartupMonitor and Startup Control Panel. The former will alert you when things try to register themselves as 'auto-startup' items in the registry and give you the option to shoot them down, and the latter will allow you to unregister already existing auto-startup items in the approximately seven different places they can lurk. It is very useful for eliminating and avoiding problems like this.

Download a bho remover http://www.computing.net/windowsme/wwwboard/forum/ 43535.html use msconfig, look in task manager, or use sysinternal's procexp, and you should be able to remove it yourself http://www.sysinternals.com/ntw2k/freeware/procexp .shtml

Startup Control Panel
http://www.mlin.net/StartupCPL.shtml

One little utility I find helpful is Mike Lin's StartupMonitor. It hollers at you whenever something (AIM, Real, Quicktime, etc.) attempts to register an executable to run at startup, and allows you to approve (or more to the point, deny) the attempt. Useful and educational!

Excellent advice, another crucial piece of software I never run windows without is Mike Lin's Startup Monitor. Which will pop up a dialogue box and notify you if a program attempts to install itself to run on startup. You can then allow or disallow. This is good for stopping all kind of annoying things from happening to your PC.

It's what I use, combined with (4) 18GB Atlas 10k III's (The drives have a seven year warranty) in a RAID 0 array. It costs 3 times as much as most motherboards and better than most motherboards.

I'm not using RAID 5 (though the 2100s supports it) because I need the space. I just run Rapidbackup to back up select data to my old IDE drive. My system is now 3 years old and it still performs fine in all but the newest games, I can run 5-6 copies of Diablo II Expansion simultaneously with almost no noticible slow down.

Last I checked the 2100s was the cheapest hardware raid system out there and it's probably worth it.

I only wish I could afford 36GB drives instead of my 18's, if I could I would use RAID 5.

Another awesome little proggie is Startup Control Panel by Mike Lin. It will alert you when a program tries to set something to execute on startup. Very useful for catching spyware and general performance tuning.

Instead of messing with the registry, download the Excellent Startup Control Panel from Mike Lin's Home Page. This little Utility is an excellent way to control what does and does not execute on Windows startup. Using this utility you will be amazed at what processes are automatically started, some programs, like roxio's crap, will start 3-5 processes at Windows Startup.

It is also an excellent way to very quickly see if any Adware/Spyware is installed without running Adaware or Spybot.

Err, Startup Monitor does just that.
Well, it doesn't protect the registry, but it does pop up a dialog box whenever something tries to add itself to those registry entries..

Also of note is that I install Windows Media Player 9 because there is no way to uninstall WMP 8, but there is an undocumented way to uninstall WMP 9.

I also tune the services on the computer to only what is needed... This includes disabling the System Restore service. The only time I've found that the restore service would have been useful is when the computer fails to boot into windows. Unfortunately MS didn't have the foresight to allow restore points to be used from the install cd so the feature is useless.

• startup control panel & startup monitor which i use to see if any worms, viruses or adware get onto my PC and have to ask my permission to register as a starup program
• zone alarm so i don't have to worry about any program trying to get into my computer or even worst
• irfan view as my all-purpouse image viewer and sound player. i use it as my primary file association for all of these, particularly since i often want to just double-click an mp3 etc.

Another similar program is StartupCPL. Small (it's only an 80k binary), simple, works with pretty much every version of Windows out there (95, NT, 98, 98SE, 2000, ME, XP), free-as-in-beer (though go ahead and send the author a couple bucks).

It doesn't handle services, but it covers most everything else, except maybe autoexec.bat. And it's a lot faster than digging through the registry.

while this program is a closed source one, it is a good freeware program that checks many places in the registry(and the normal StartUp menu, etc.) for programs that run on startup, StartUp It comes in a Control Panel applet and as a stand-alone exe.

(Disclaimer: I am not Mike Lin)

is to use Startup Control Panel

Also good are Mike Lin's Startup Control Panel and StartupMonitor,

Also good are Mike Lin's Startup Control Panel and StartupMonitor,

Uh, you might wanna:

1) Investigate how to control just what goes in your startup with tools such as Startup Control Panel and StartupMonitor
2) Just click 'Edit | Preferences | QuickTime Preferences | Browser Plug-in', and uncheck 'QuickTime system tray icon'. :-\

Uh, you might wanna:

1) Investigate how to control just what goes in your startup with tools such as Startup Control Panel and StartupMonitor
2) Just click 'Edit | Preferences | QuickTime Preferences | Browser Plug-in', and uncheck 'QuickTime system tray icon'. :-\

Why should I trust software from an author who offers to protect my computer for free, when he's so rabidly against opening his source code?

See the end of his FAQ

So how do we know else it really does?

- Startup control panel
- Startup monitor

Since I have those two, life is good and (almost) malware-free.

- Startup control panel
- Startup monitor

Since I have those two, life is good and (almost) malware-free.

I have to kill it and remove it out of the registry to from stop it from starting up whenever I login.

No you don't.

But you can't use it indiscriminately. Most setup programs for example will add a run-once entry to delete temp files or files that were in use and couldn't be replaced - this is something you want to allow. But the same setup program may also be installing fishy stuff, so you need to be able to tell the difference.

Mike Lin, a very prolific young programmer, wrote this program.

Here's the site: StartupMonitor

Well, actually, as Microsoft will tell you, it's called the 'Notification Area'. Only naughty developers call it the system tray :-)

So of course, the first thing iTunes does is install a tray icon for itself and one for QuickTime, all without asking me. It's trivial to remove the QuickTime icon (not sure how to remove the iTunes one when it's running), but I need to do it every single time this program gets upgraded, which seems to be quite a lot.

You might be interested in this program then.

Ive been using XP for a while now and these are the essentials that I've found I can't live without
1 : Firebird (IE sucks leprous donkey balls, opera cant render properly, mozilla is slow, firebird is the best)
2 : Gvim is the best editor out there for code and text alike (remember to disable backup files)
3 : PuTTy retreat to a comfortable bash shell ;)
4 : XP Powertoys virtual desktop manager,cmd prompt here context menu and of course...
5 : TweakUI turn off those silly windows defaults
6 : a good FTP client,WS-ftp is a good one
7 : Winace,the only compression tool youll ever need!
8 : startup monitor monitors for extraneous crap adding itself to startup
9 : strokeit ,mouse gestures for windows,Yay!
10 : Nethack the only game you need (safe for work too)

that might not necessarily be in the right order and this doesnt count amusement software like media players and whatnot but those are my most used tools at work

Try this: http://www.mlin.net/ Download Startup Control Panel and Startup Monitor, two of the best utilities around for controlling the automatic startup of applications. You should then be able to kill Messenger and any other annoying apps that like to start themselves up.

Have you seen this free GPL SMP SeeSaw tool? It can let you manually balance CPU loads in dual cpu windows machines.

1st, any smart XP user would already have Mike Lin's Startup Control Panel installed.

Fact is no Geek with XP would be without it, it makes things piss easy.

2nd, once one notices the 60 second reboots (after windows has fully loaded), after a fresh reboot, one will quickly ctrl-alt-del & end any out of the ordinary processes

3rd (either now or after a reboot), one will open up Mike Lin's Startup Control Panel & notice a new startup process called MSblast.exe, taged as a Windows update utility. One will disable it (untick it), meaning it won't run on startup. (it actually appears twice, obviously to get people who don't notice, meaning one has to disable one entry & delete the other entry, which is just a 'right click, click delete, then click ok' routine). One then reboots.

4/ One now runs the find file routine & it turns up exactly where you think it probably is (Startup CPL shows the address of most processes, but for some reason not all of them) windows/system 32. Now as it's tagged as 'Windows update tool' (or something like that, I can't remember the 3rd word), one might worry if deleting it might hurt the system. Afterall 'Windows update' in a intigral part of XP. However like all geeks, one's using XP Corporate which has that disabled, so why is was it running in the background, seeemingly causing problems till it was disabled? So one right-clicks 'My Computer', clicks 'properties' & notices that 'windows update' is still all greyed out, as per normal, meaning the computer's not using 'Windows Update', meaning MSblast.exe is not what it appears.

5/ Time for deletion. One drags msblast.exe to a floppy in case it is needed & things fuckup without it, then I delete & empty the recycle business.

6/ Wonder how it got into the Windows/system 32 directory in the 1st place.

And if you are testing web pages in multiple resolutions, trying out everything from 640x480 up to 1600x1200 on an lcd can be . . . problematic to say the least.

Umm, why are you changing the screen size and not the browser size? Try Mike Lin's WindowSizer to resize your browser to an exact size.

And if you are testing web pages in multiple resolutions, trying out everything from 640x480 up to 1600x1200 on an lcd can be . . . problematic to say the least.

Umm, why are you changing the screen size and not the browser size? Try Mike Lin's WindowSizer to resize your browser to an exact size.

Try StartupMonitor.

But, in the meantime there is a small little utility you can use to do just this that has worked great for me.

It is called Startup Monitor and it basically just sits around watching for programs trying to add themselves to the startup folder.

When a program tries to drop itself in the Start Folder the Startup Monitor utility pops up a dialog that asks if you want to allow the action.

You can find it at:

http://www.mlin.net/StartupMonitor.shtml

If you like that, then you'll love this. It's a quasi command line freeware tool called MCL that has all but obsoleted using the mouse to start programs on my windows machine. Once you're used to it, you can't live without it.

StartupCPL by Mike Lin is a very nifty utility with a gui to disable programs started by the registry. Its freeware. Also check out the software in his page which notifies you if any other application attempts to change the registry so that it gets automatically started up during booting.

I suggest you check out the freeware win32 program (available with source) called MCL. It's a very useful 'command line' that can be added into windows. It has obsoleted the start menu on my machine. It's great because you can write your own plugins to control other applications, scripts to automate tasks and so on. There are tons of other options and I encourage any of those who are sick of the start menu to check it out.

oh, one more that I forgot to mention b/c litestep eliminates my need for it (and winxp integrated the idea): TraySaver (i can't find the license but the code is on sourceforge).
stash systemtray icons in a second tray available with a click, add an option to the alt+space pulldown that says 'minimize to tray' ... VERY handy esp. at low resolution.

the author's StartupCPL (closed source, puts in a control panel section to manage what starts up with windows) and WindowSizer (resize ANY window) are put on every windows machine I touch.

oh, one more that I forgot to mention b/c litestep eliminates my need for it (and winxp integrated the idea): TraySaver (i can't find the license but the code is on sourceforge).
stash systemtray icons in a second tray available with a click, add an option to the alt+space pulldown that says 'minimize to tray' ... VERY handy esp. at low resolution.

the author's StartupCPL (closed source, puts in a control panel section to manage what starts up with windows) and WindowSizer (resize ANY window) are put on every windows machine I touch.

oh, one more that I forgot to mention b/c litestep eliminates my need for it (and winxp integrated the idea): TraySaver (i can't find the license but the code is on sourceforge).
stash systemtray icons in a second tray available with a click, add an option to the alt+space pulldown that says 'minimize to tray' ... VERY handy esp. at low resolution.

the author's StartupCPL (closed source, puts in a control panel section to manage what starts up with windows) and WindowSizer (resize ANY window) are put on every windows machine I touch.

Try out a program called Startup Control Panel by Mike Lin.. It allows you to have full control over startup programs..

You'll find it here

Try Startup Control Panel, very handy little program that allows easy access to all the programs that windows tries to start.

Here's a little utility that I think is under-rated, but immensely useful for turfing naughty startup utilities:

Startup Control Panel 2.7 by Mike Lin", available from http://www.mlin.net/StartupCPL.shtml

It's always among the first freeware utilities I recommend to my windozing friends.

Get Mike Lin's Startup Control Panel and StartupMonitor. With the Startup CPL, you can disable the entries without deleting them, which means the program still thinks it's there and active, keeping it from adding another one and causing it to start up again.
StartupMonitor will make sure no nasty programs try to add stuff without your permission. (You catch a lot of crap, like GRPCONV (whatever the hell that is), but some of it is legitimately stuff you don't want -- Cydoor, for example.)

Yeah, those windows key shortcuts do speed things up. But the nice little freeware win32 util called MCL does for winkey shortcuts what those shortcuts do for the traditional methods of performing actions. Thanks to this util, I hever have to find an icon anywhere, I never have to go start > run and I never have to worry about the idiot proof windows interface obstructing my work.

If you combine that with Turbo Navigator [freeware] you can outpace the mouse in practically any desktop or file management tasks. (TN is an excellent win32 Norton Commander / Midnight Commander clone.)

I don't know of any spyware that can get around it.

Startup control panel will allow you to get rid of anything already set to run on startup. Get them here

If you don't have a firewall, get ZoneAlarm while you're at it, and you will receive a prompt any tima a program tries to use the internet. I've killed spyware without any complicated install/uninstall procedures, just by using these programs.

I currently use a program that watches for any program that tries to register itself to run automatically named Startup Monitor. It works great against adware and other programs that aren't specifically viruses, but that do cause my computer to not work properly. Anyway, it catches the most annoying autoexec programs, but not VXDs or OCXs or certain other registered DLLs.

I wonder how script-kiddyish the actual Magic Lantern is, beyond the concept.

Alternatively, you could get StartupCPL, a tool that collects and lists the entries in the appropriate registry locations. You're still left with checking autoexec.bat and win.ini, but this has been very convenient for me on many occassions. It has no cost, but the source isn't available.

This is not a new idea, but rather yet another case of Microsoft "innovating" by taking other people's ideas and hawking them as their own.

I've been using TraySaver for two years now, and it works like a charm. Another, slightly different implementation, is PC Magazine's Tray Manager. Both programs come with full source code, so you can customize them to your heart's desire.
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I highly recommend a utility written by Mike Lin which can be had for free at http://www.mlin.net/StartupCPL.shtml. It enumerates each and every program and service that will run at startup. It runs on any 32-bit Windows OS from Win95 Gold to Win2000. What distinguishes it from other programs of its type is that when you delete an entry, it only moves to a "Deleted" area so that if you find out things have crashed and burned after a reboot, all is not lost.