Cluttered interface doesn't affect performance

This free program's interface is a great example of how not to use tabs, because they only added to the cluttered and overwhelming user interface. But despite that, AutoRuns did give us a good picture of the programs configured to run during start-up.

From the get-go, we were overwhelmed by AutoRuns' interface. The tabs indicating our PC's different programs were scrunched together and the tiny icons on each tab made them difficult to read. The same could be said for the actual information within each tab. Resizing the window only marginally helped the view. A tree-menu style interface would have been a better choice for displaying so much information. Still, we were able to view start-up programs under our Network Providers, IE, Drivers, and any known DLLs, to name a few. The autorun entry name, along with its description, publisher, and image path were displayed, along with a check box to enable or disable the program.

Novices will be disappointed by the program's faulty Help feature. It produced an error message each time we tried to access it during our tests. But the program is fairly easy to operate and gives users a good, albeit cluttered, view of their start-up programs.