Autoruns

CNET Editors' review

by: CNET staff on September 12, 2010

There are few things more frustrating that an unwanted program that launches every time you start your computer, especially when the normal means of preventing this from happening--like checking for it in the Startup folder--don't work. What's worse is when numerous unneeded and invisible processes launch, slowing down both start-up and your computer's performance as a whole. AutoRuns is a simple program that lets users view--and disable--everything that runs on startup, saving both time and irritation.

The program's interface is a little cluttered, with 17 tabs that display the various programs and processes that run on startup. These are separated into categories, such as Print Monitors, Codecs, Windows Explorer, and so on, and there's also a tab that shows everything. Disabling an unwanted process is as simple as unchecking the box next to it. AutoRuns lets users optionally hide Windows entries or Windows and Microsoft entries, helping to prevent users from disabling critical processes. For the most part the program was quite easy to use, but novices may feel a little nervous about messing around with unfamiliar processes. We had hoped that the program's Help file would provide some guidance on this front, but we were disappointed to find that although there is a built-in Help file, none of its contents would load. This is the only significant drawback to AutoRuns, and users who are already comfortable in this arena should find that AutoRuns meets their needs just fine. Beginners will likely want to do some research before they start making too many changes.

AutoRuns comes as a ZIP file and is accessible after extraction with no need for installation. We recommend this program to all users.