Author Topic: startup/tasks manager? (Read 22369 times)

jpfx · « **on:** August 13, 2005, 07:32 PM »

I've been thinking of wintasks pro http://www.liutiliti...roducts/wintaskspro/ but I'm wondering if anyone has any positive experiences with this or similar software?
I'm looking for a program that will give me useful information about what startups I have and be able to disable/re-enable them. Also what processes are currently running and what they do.
Wintasks pro is okay and provides a useful database which describes what processes you have running but it's startup manager is poor and provides no such info.
Something like sysinternals process manager and autoruns http://www.sysintern...hreadsUtilities.html with a database would be perfect.

dtrud0h · « **Reply #1 on:** August 13, 2005, 07:45 PM »

i'm pretty sure that "Starter" by codestuff software does what you want, I think it links you to a webpage when you ask it for info on a particular process, or dll, but usefull nonetheless. Might not be free I don't remember.

jpfx · « **Reply #2 on:** August 15, 2005, 05:27 PM »

thanks, I'll look into it.

Darwin · « **Reply #3 on:** August 15, 2005, 06:03 PM »

You might try WinPatrol, which comes in both free and shareware (Plus) versions. It sounds like it might be what you're after, though I am not sure that its database is as comprehensive as you might be looking for...

WinPatrol offers information on processes similar to that offered by WinTasks, though it doesn't provide nearly the information that WinTasks does - it's not really meant to be a Taskman replacement. It organises running tasks, startup tasks, processes, etc. into tabs along the top of the app. window. You can select any startup item, running task, process, etc. and then click a button for more information on it. With the Plus version, you can further select the option of going to the WinPatrol website for more information and analysis.

You can grab it here:

http://www.winpatrol.com/winpatrol.html (download link)
http://www.winpatrol.com (information)

Darwin · « **Reply #4 on:** August 15, 2005, 06:19 PM »

PS I also own WinTasks Pro and like it a lot. Increasingly, though, I find myself using Taskman instead... WinTasks is powerful but not nearly as configureable as I would like. For example, I find the information that it will display (the columns that you can add to view) limited in terms of its configureability and one of the selling points for me when I bought it - the way it displays running processes paths, etc. now annoys me! I'd like just to be able to sort it and find the exe file name, PERIOD, not have to wade through all the path names or the complete name of the file, including the author's name (svchost.exe rather than Microsoft Service Host Process. Picky, picky, I know). For another, I can't find any means of displaying Virtual Memory usage. I should play around with it more as I can't believe that this isn't an option that's already present.

Haven't tried it as a startup manager. I purchased it as a Taskman replacement and already had WinPatrol for Startup management. Given that I've been following Scott's creed of late and trying to purge my system of bloat (I have multiple file managers, file viewers, archive managers, etc.) perhaps I should revisit this and see if one or the other of these apps is a candidate for removal... Hmmm. Food for thought.

Hope this helps (I have a wicked case of verbal diarrhea, yet have an appalling case of writer's - thinker's - block with my dissertation. Interesting...).

jpfx · « **Reply #5 on:** August 15, 2005, 06:46 PM »

winpatrol looks very interesting. I've heard good things about it as a spyware detector but it does have access to an online database and is reasonably priced.
I shall investigate further, good luck with lateral thinking!

mouser · « **Reply #6 on:** August 15, 2005, 11:50 PM »

I've been really happy with Startup Cop Pro by pc magazine; it used to be free before they moved to a god awful subscription based access to their software

Darwin · « **Reply #7 on:** August 16, 2005, 12:24 AM »

I'd forgotten about Startup Cop Pro. I have a copy but don't have it installed (though I did play around with it and was impressed). There are some very nice features with the latest version... Anyway, you can buy PC Mag's apps for $5 each, if you don't have a subscription (the subscription is $19.95 a year and comes with full access to the magazine on line as well, not that I've found that very useful, given the nightmare organisation of the website....).

AbteriX · « **Reply #8 on:** August 16, 2005, 09:23 AM »

I suggest also Sysinternals freeware tools for such issues:

for task manager => Process Explorer http://www.sysintern...ProcessExplorer.html

for startup manager => Autoruns http://www.sysintern...lities/autoruns.html

and check out Filemon http://www.sysintern...ilities/Filemon.html
and Regmon http://www.sysintern...tilities/Regmon.html
and PSTools http://www.sysintern...ilities/PsTools.html
too if u need such things

mouser · « **Reply #9 on:** August 16, 2005, 09:34 AM »

sysinternals tools are in a class by themselves.

but i didn't know about Autoruns - great find!

though i'd still recommend a simpler streamlined tool for day-to-day checking of startup entries;
what i like about startup cop is how easy it is to identify new programs that have added themselves to startup.

jpfx · « **Reply #10 on:** August 16, 2005, 05:02 PM »

pcmag can shove their download subscription right up their khyber pass.
Actually I do have the old startup cop from pcmag. It's okay but I doubt the database was ever updated. The new version has been roundly slated as junk though I have no personal experience.
As for sysinternals... well I mentioned them at the start

I'm inclined to think there aren't any gems out there and we've actually already covered anything worth contemplating apart from some suites which have these sort of utilities... jv16, ace utils...

Edvard · « **Reply #11 on:** August 16, 2005, 05:11 PM »

Mike Lin's Startup Control Panel
I need say no more...

Except, I have found pcmag software like so...
go to their mag's site, find the software you want and pretend like you are going to download it, at some point it will tell you that you can't download whateveritis.exe unless you have a subscription. Now you have the file name, go Google.

Carol Haynes · « **Reply #12 on:** August 16, 2005, 06:06 PM »

I use MLins Startup Panel too - excellent tool.

Donation ware too ...

Darwin · « **Reply #13 on:** August 16, 2005, 06:19 PM »

I forgot about Startup Control Panel - that's the app that set me off down this path about 5 years ago. It doesn't have any sort of database associated with it directly or via the Internet though, as far as I can recall...

mouser · « **Reply #14 on:** August 16, 2005, 06:24 PM »

let me tell you what upset me most about pc magazine.
i was a pc magazine subscriber - and they couldnt be bothered to give their magazine subscribers free access to the software?
not only did i not pay extra for their software but i canceled my subscription. greed should not be rewarded.

Darwin · « **Reply #15 on:** August 16, 2005, 09:57 PM »

Hmmm... that is bad, really bad. They give those people paying $19.95 for the utilities free access to the on-line version of the magazine but not the other way around for people (presumably) paying much more for the print version of the mag. Actually, it is not so much bad as just plain ridiculous (=STUPID!). Anyway, I purchased a subscription to the apps when I was still running a machine with win98 and found that I used a good number of them. I felt that I would have paid 19.95 for any single one of them so didn't mind shelling that amount out for unfettered access to the entire catalogue. Now I'm on WinXP and Win2k and find that I am not using ANY of them. I had already decided not to renew but have now had that decision reinforced by Mouser's comment.

Live and learn.

mouser · « **Reply #16 on:** August 16, 2005, 10:09 PM »

in all fairness, darwin, you're point about the price is well taken -
the pc mag library of software includes some very good utils, and all things considered its an excellent bargain.
i just really expected that if i subscribed to the print magazine they would be nice enough to grant access to library.

by the way, althought it is a subscription based thing, you can just sign up for a short period of time and you can download all their current files and use forever. when the subscription runs out it just means you won't be able to get any new programs - the old ones dont expire.

again, they are good programs, and it is a very good bargain - it's was just hard to stomach going from freeware to not giving acccess to paying magazine subscribers that really rubbed me the wrong way, especially with their magazine getting thinner and thinner each year..

jpfx · « **Reply #17 on:** August 17, 2005, 05:36 PM »

But all these pcmag utilities were developed by someone else and they are the ones that should benefit from the subscription payment. Startup cop was initially developed by AnalogX.
I failed to mention that I bought the subscription, downloaded startup cop and was never able to login again ever. I tried to get some support but that was about as easy as looking at my own asshole without a mirror. So I gave up, they did want to know if I wanted to renew so I said 'kiss it cos I can't!'

Darwin · « **Reply #18 on:** August 17, 2005, 07:09 PM »

Love the imagery (on reflection, do I? Hmm... maybe not, but funny nonetheless) of "trying to look at my own asshole without a mirror". Best laugh of the day!

Do you know your username and password for PCMag? If so, do you run any sort of download manager and/or an Internet privacy service (Ghostsurf, Ad-muncher, Anonymizer, etc.)? If you do, PCMag is really finicky about this - you'll get a useless 12 byte file called something like 0~00 if you try to use a download manager, for example. Anyway, I've had troubles logging in in the past, which I've been able to resolve. If you want to post more details about your specific problem I *might* be able to help... You can contact me off the forum, too, if you'd prefer, or if you think that would be more appropriate.

jpfx · « **Reply #19 on:** August 18, 2005, 04:49 PM »

I use admuncher so maybe that was it. Anyway, my 12 month subscription of no access is long over but thanks for the offer.

masu · « **Reply #20 on:** January 26, 2006, 03:09 PM »

I use MLins Startup Panel too - excellent tool.

Donation ware too ...
-Carol Haynes (August 16, 2005, 06:06 PM)

it's tiny and it's good

Jimdoria · « **Reply #21 on:** February 01, 2006, 01:52 PM »

I'm glad I'm a packrat and have saved all the PC Magazine utilities I downloaded years ago. They still come in handy, but now I'd have to pay to re-download them. Oh, well....

I also use MLin's Startup Monitor and Startup Control Panel. But the utility I've found the most useful for managing startup configs is Startup Delayer by R2 studios. (http://www.r2.com.au/) It has no database functionality and doesn't seem to deal with services at all, but what it does it does well. It manages your startup items, and lets you specify a variable delay for each item. Basically, this gives you control over the order of the startup process, and lets you space out the startup of certain apps so they're not all competing for the CPU and HD at the same time. The result is a more responsive machine during startup and (theoretically - I've not tested this) a faster startup time for each item.

The best part is that in addition to spacing out the execution of startup files, it has an interactive mode where you can cancel any item in the startup process. So when I'm working offline on my laptop, I can prevent my firewall software and other internet-specific apps from loading at all.

SD could definitely use a few tweaks - the ability to skip a single process without cancelling everything that follows it, or the option to launch an item immediately instead of waiting for its programmed delay to elapse - but even so I've found this to be a great startup manager.

(My first post as a member, BTW, so hi everybody!

)

- Jimdoria ~@>@

mouser · « **Reply #22 on:** February 01, 2006, 05:17 PM »

welcome Jimdoria! (great first post by the way!)

ps.
i too am a fan of the pc mag utils, and a great hater of their system of having to pay a yearly fee to be able to continue to download them, even the old ones (even if it's not expensive, that just seems wrong).

Creamy Goodness · « **Reply #23 on:** February 05, 2006, 04:19 AM »

wow, nobody mentioned regrun?

check it out!

sorry about spamming my website everywhere, but it's just free info and a screenshot, i dont get any $ no matter what you do on my page...

mouser · « **Reply #24 on:** February 05, 2006, 05:09 AM »

i'm actually browsing and enjoying www.appcheck.net, nice site, cg