WhatInStartup

CNET Editors' review

by: CNET staff on November 11, 2009

WhatInStartup is a basic program that allows users to view and disable programs that run automatically when Windows starts. It's nothing fancy, but it does work.

The program's interface is plain, consisting mostly of just a list of processes that are scheduled to run on start-up. Users enable or disable each one with the click of a button, and that's really all there is to it. The program provides a few other features--users can view each program's properties (in an HTML format if desired), and there's a search feature for users who have a lot of processes to sift through--but the program's operation is generally pretty basic, which is good for users who aren't terribly knowledgeable about computers. More-advanced users will appreciate the program's support of command-line options when booting Windows from an external drive. The program's built-in Help file is brief but does an adequate job of explaining the program's functions. Overall, we found that the program was both easy to use and effective. We will caution, however, that the program's ease of use could be both a blessing and a curse; novices will want to take care that they don't disable processes that are necessary for the proper function of their system. With a bit of common sense, though, this shouldn't be a major problem.

WhatInStartup is free. It comes as a ZIP file and runs after extraction with no need for installation. We recommend this program to all users.

 

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Publisher's Description

From NirSoft Freeware:

This utility displays the list of all applications that are loaded automatically when Windows starts up. For each application, the following information is displayed as Startup Type (Registry/Startup Folder), Command-Line String, Product Name, File Version, Company Name, Location in the Registry or file system.It allows you to easily disable or delete unwanted programs that runs in your Windows startup. You can use it on your currently running instance of Windows, as well as you can use it on external instance of Windows in another drive. WhatInStartup also supports a special Permanent Disabling feature,if a program that you previously disabled added itself again to the startup list of Windows, WhatInStartup will automatically detect the change and disable it again.

What's new in this version: Version 1.33 added 'File Size' column.

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