WinPatrol Plus on Bits Du Jour - Friday 2/13/09

[Steven Avery]

Hi Folks,

Definitely a quality software.

WinPatrol Plus on Bits Du Jour - Friday  2/13/09 - $14.95  (why not $15 )
http://www.bitsdujou...ware/winpatrol-plus/

Personally I think a good startup manager is one of the utilities that are worth a small investment over freeware.
WinPatrol has a decent free version.

The three that I like most are:

Startup Organizer - Metaproducts ($25 .. formerly DC discount 02/2008)
http://www.metaprodu...tartup_Organizer.htm
Support Forum - Mild activity
http://www.metaprodu...orums_Post.asp?id=14

Chameleon Startup Manager ($24.95 - 40% DC Discount = $15 ) No forum
http://www.neosoft-t...-startup-manager.htm

WinPatrol Plus - BillP Studios - no forum, nice blog and FAQ
http://www.winpatrol.com/

In my limited experience:

Startup Organizer is the simplest, is well-organized and easy to understand and is very reliable.
Chameleon has more features.  Note some design similarity to SO.
Win Patrol Plus also is feature-rich - perhaps with a wider variety and stronger malware awareness

There are another couple of dozen alternatives and some reasonable freeware, for most uses I recommend having one of the above.

Perhaps a separate thread in the discussion forum focusing mostly on the three.  I started with Startup Organizer years ago, so I tend to be sympathetic, yet the other two may have passed it by some.

Look for the thread in the General Discussion Forum. I'll bring this whole post over, more or less.

Shalom,
Steven Avery

[MilesAhead]

I also have one that's command line oriented.  Not very imaginatively named
Run And Place utilities. It's available for download from this page:

http://www.favessoft.com/downloads.html

It has no graphical or drag & drop or iconinc utility.  The startup program is called rapper.exe which reads a .txt file of params for rap.exe which launches them.  Each program is launched at a specific screen position, width and height. Might be of interest to neat freaks who like every window to be placed and sized just so.

Since it launches one at a time with delays to wait for the window to open so it can be moved and sized, it is in effect a startup delayer of sorts if you put a shortcut with param file in the startup folder.

Also included are window resizers to center a window at a percentage of width and height of the screen res etc..

They are all just little AutoIt3 utils.
Can be handy for .cmd scripts like if you want to open your browser to a specific page and make it's width and height a specific % of screen res. to read an online newspaper or some other thing you read often where the specific size saves you from resizing with the mouse, etc..

[tomos]

I also have one that's command line oriented.  Not very imaginatively named
Run And Place utilities. It's available for download from this page:

http://www.favessoft.com/downloads.html

-MilesAhead (March 11, 2009, 01:05 PM)

Avira AntiVir (Premium) tags this as some AutoIT trojan (and doesnt let you copy the name, how silly)
I guess it's the same problem as with AHK programmes - just thought I'd let you know

[MilesAhead]

Yeah, just about any compiled AutoIt3 gets false flagged.  If you go on the AutoIt forum there's a sticky about it.

I don't password it so if you want to decompile the exes with AutoIt decompiler I don't mind.

[cyberdiva]

I'm a big fan of WinPatrol PLUS.  I bought it several years ago because it gave me a lot of useful information about various files on my system, but over time I've come to value it at least as much for its startup manager features.  I especially like the fact that it will warn me when software tries to insert itself into my startup menu, and I also like the "delayed start-up" feature, whereby I can arrange to have apps start at staggered intervals at startup rather than all at once.

Another aspect of WinPatrol Plus that I value highly is the support of its developer.  He will respond to emails very quickly, and his policy is that once you've bought WinPatrol Plus, ALL future updates/upgrades are free.   

[MilesAhead]

Hmmmmm the startup delay thing makes me think it might be a good idea to have a launcher that gives you a chance to kill all the startups like if you are installing software or trying to put on a service pack where the machine reboots 5 times.  Avoiding all the utilities coming up without having to drag a bunch of icons out of the startup folder.

Then again this is probably already a feature in a bunch of launchers.  But I could add it to rapper.  Just have a MsgBox that times out and if you don't make a choice before the time-out it defaults to either launch or don't launch all the start up stuff(maybe according to setting in a .ini file or something.)

[Steven Avery]

Hi Folks,

I agree, Cyberdiva.  Very few programs get the warnings-rollback right, or the delaying, or the configuration, especially a "choose at startup" option (I'm not sure how WinPatrol does on configs). These are the basics of quality in this genre. Any many probably miss this or that in the arcane startup sections, the other basic. (And the bad guys will look for the arcane.) Oh, and developer support, basic #5 . Oh, and the standard needs ... usability and interface and stability.  One note: WinPatrol seems to be the most HIPS/security conscious on any startup program.  Startup Organizer from Metaproducts was always very solid and strong for me in that realm, I am having a little problem right now with that in Chameleon and sent Evgeni a note. Win Patrol is probably #1 in security.

What is curious is that the firewalls have not really followed suit -- (if anyone knows a good firewall or HIPS program that incorporates full and strong startup protection, please indicate).  They have a lot of resources, yet seem to be not fully-dimensional.

Here is one question I am trying to check on the WinPatrol Bits Du Jour discount today.  There is a new WinPatrol coming out in a few days, WinPatrol 2009.  If there is going to be an upgrade fee then of course the discount today is much less of a great shakes.  Awaiting a callback, and I may post this on Iconico's Bits du Jour as well.

Shalom,
Steven Avery

[cyberdiva]

Here is one question I am trying to check on the WinPatrol Bits Du Jour discount today.  There is a new WinPatrol coming out in a few days, WinPatrol 2009.  If there is going to be an upgrade fee then of course the discount today is much less of a great shakes.  Awaiting a callback, and I may post this on Iconico's Bits du Jour as well.

-Steven Avery (March 13, 2009, 09:19 AM)

I would be surprised, Steven, if there were a fee for the new version.  The developer's policy has always been that ALL new versions are free once you've paid for the PLUS version.  I know that that was true for me when WP 2008 came out.  I had bought the software several years earlier, but I was able to download and install 2008 at no cost, and I expect to be able to do so with 2009 as well.  I didn't get the software via a Bits du Jour discount, but I did get it at a somewhat smaller discount through Neat Net Tricks.  Their software panel had reviewed the program very enthusiastically, and that made me decide to buy it.  NNT offered a small discount, and I took advantage of it.  I've never been sorry!

[mwb1100]

The developer's policy has always been that ALL new versions are free once you've paid for the PLUS version.

-cyberdiva (March 13, 2009, 10:48 AM)

This is confirmed by a comment by the developer on BitsDuJour:

Yes, WinPatrol 2009 will be launched on Monday and is a free upgrade. That means if take advantage of the Bits discount today, it's still good for the new version and ever other future version. PLUS is a one time fee and not a subscription.

-Bill Pytlovany (BillP Studios Developer)

[Darwin]

Another aspect of WinPatrol Plus that I value highly is the support of its developer.  He will respond to emails very quickly, and his policy is that once you've bought WinPatrol Plus, ALL future updates/upgrades are free.   :Thmbsup

-cyberdiva (March 12, 2009, 02:45 PM)

+1 Bill provides AWESOME support, WinPatrol is updated frequently, and it works really, really well. The all future updates/upgrades are the icing on the cake. Also, I've corresponded with Bill a few times about things I'd like to see introduced into the program and he's been very receptive and has taken the time to sound me out further about the improvements/features I've suggested.