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Thank you for the alert, MRainey. Please clarify, though: Were only Lenovo laptops rated poorly, or also ThinkPads (made by Lenovo)? I have always been a great ThinkPad fan, though I didn't like Lenovo laptops as much. (BTW, my one fairly recent Toshiba was lousy.)

Sorry I'm jumping in so late here, but if anyone's still listening...

WinPatrol is an excellent task manager utility that, among its numerous useful functions, lets you choose the delay intervals for startup applications.

I now prefer AnVir Task Manager, with similar functionality. However, AnVir's main drawback, in my opinion, is that the startup delay is not configurable -- it's 1 minute for all startup apps you choose to delay.

Both come in free and paid versions. I  briefly reviewed WinPatrol in post #11 of my utilites blog, and AnVir in post #57.

I hope this is helpful.

I evaluated Advanced Renamer for my roundup of free batch file renamers in my utilities blog. It was not one of my recommendations, but I am embarrassed to admit that I don't remember why it didn't make the cut. Instead, I chose Flash Renamer, RenameMaster, and ReNamer as the top three. You can find the review in last weeks' post. I hope this is helpful.

Sorry for the late entry. I just noticed this thread in the newsletter.

The free version of Good Sync is indeed crippled. If you want a file and folder synchronizer program, some swear by Karen's Replicator or SyncBack Free, but I chose Allway Sync. You can read my review in post #27 of my utilities blog (http://jonathanstoolbar.blogspot.com). I followed up on Good Sync in post #28.

I hope this is helpful.

MS SyncToy will do what you want, but awkwardly. GoodSync is too limited. I use AllWay Sync'n'Go and am satisfied. You can configure it to work just as you said you want it to. there's also a nice USB version. See my review in post #27 of my utilities blog, http://jonathanstoolbar.blogspot.com . Many others have also recommended Karen's File Replicator (http://www.karenware.com/powertools/powertools.asp), but I haven't tried it.

   Thanks very much for another great newsletter, and especially for plugging my utilities blog in your member Site Spotlight. I see a number of readers already have visited. I hope everyone finds the information there useful! Meanwhile, I drew attention to Screenshot Captor and Clipboard Help+Spell in a comment to an article on 20 indispensable utilities on pcworld.com.

Thank you for letting us know about Appaholic. If you're already publicizing utilities blogs, can I take the liberty of plugging mine too? "Jonathan's Tool Bar & Grill" recommends great free and cheap utility software and useful Web sites. Please visit me at http://jonathanstoolbar.blogspot.com . And please tell all your friends! Thank you for your attention.