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WinPatrol appears dead

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superboyac:
I wasn't trying to be prophetic since WinPatrol was a valuable utility for me for years, but it is officially gone, website and all. Users report that it still works, but the learn function no longer does, which means it no longer "learns" whether a startup is allowed or not. I haven't found a suitable alternative :(. 
-Joe Hone (August 06, 2021, 04:46 PM)
--- End quote ---
no alternative?!  so crazy.

MilesAhead:
I wasn't trying to be prophetic since WinPatrol was a valuable utility for me for years, but it is officially gone, website and all. Users report that it still works, but the learn function no longer does, which means it no longer "learns" whether a startup is allowed or not. I haven't found a suitable alternative :(. 
-Joe Hone (August 06, 2021, 04:46 PM)
--- End quote ---
no alternative?!  so crazy.
-superboyac (August 30, 2021, 10:30 PM)
--- End quote ---

Looking for alternatives I found this article

There seems to be some inaccuracies in it though.  I used WinPatrol on my desktop PCs for quite awhile.  I remember the original author spent a lot of time vetting people who were willing to take it over and selected one.  This was before 2013.  I don't remember exactly but I know for sure the original author did retire and sold the program and web site.  The main feature I liked was blocking apps autostarting.  It seemed like every program wanted to load into the tray so that startup seemed instant.  The more things change...  a recent Edge browser update pulled the same gimmick in Windows 10.  It started loading itself in the background on startup by default.

I see now too that Opera based on chromium, which used to be stingy on resources is now loading 14 exe instances on startup when the only tab is the speed dial.  So tedious.   :down:

Joe Hone:
Online reviews for a suitable replacement for WinPatrol state that there's nothing exactly like it, but several recommend Kerish Doctor. It's free right now on sharewareonsale dot com. I'll give it a spin and report my thoughts. Given the increasing sophistication of malware it's probably wishful thinking on my part, but I liked the peace of mind WP gave back in the day.

dantheman:
VoodooShield
have always been quite generous with their basic, free for personal use version.
Just takes a bit of time to get acquainted with it to block any dubious app.

O%O ShutUP has been my fav to limit the unwanted stuff Windows 10 does on my laptop.

Last, but not least...
ProcessLasso (lifetime license available) - to control app processes.

Dormouse:
WinPatrol was nice and simple, unless you chose for it not to be.

One lesson I took from it is that handing on such a project frequently fails however carefully it's done. I've seen quite a few instances of that. Also true for large company taking over a small; rarely ends with the product developing as it would have done if the original developers had the resources of the larger one. Even when the original developers stay on. As with WinAmp.

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