Windows Startup Programs

For a discussion of the "Startup Problem", please see:
Introduction to Windows Startups (opens in a new browser window).

My short list may be found at Program and Executable Names Index (PENINDEX.HTM)
(opens in a new browser window and was previously called the Short List).

Brief Background

Every time any computer boots up it launches many programs which "run in the background". This means that the various pieces of software are loaded into memory and are ready to run but they do not occupy a button on the taskbar; sometimes they will have a position in the System Tray (Notification Area). These programs are commonly referred to as "Startup Programs" and may be defined by several methods.

The problem with this is that each of these background programs detract from the computer's available resources such as free RAM and CPU time. This can cause programs which the user wants to run to become balky or even crash.

For some reason, many programmers are of the humble opinion that their software is so vitally important to the user that they make sure that their software loads every time the computer is booted.

So the questions become:

I spent a couple months building up a collection of program names and what they do in the hopes of compiling a comprehensive listing just for my own personal use. I got up to a hundred or so, but then I stumbled onto a true find.

It is a page which itemizes over ten thousand programs which are liable to insert themselves as a Startup Program. I have corresponded with the author, Paul Collins (see Pacman's Portal), and I am confident in the accuracy of his information.

Mr. Collins' Startups List (opens in a new window) itemizes specific information about each of these potential Startup Applications and has a built in search engine.

For reasons of personal aesthetics I have taken the liberty, with Mr. Collins' kind and express permission, of presenting the same information in a different format.

My page format lists only the Program names and the Executable file names. Clicking on the program|executable name opens a new browser window containing the individual detail information.

This permits one to view more than one data item at a time (which I find to be very handy when trying to cross reference information). Each individual data item window maybe be Closed, Refreshed (handy if your cache isn't up to date), or Printed.

I have ascertained (by the tried and true method of empirical discovery) that Google only caches and indexes information of webpages from the first 100K bytes.

Therefore, I have added to my parsing program a module which creates files called MINDEX.HTM, MINDEX01.HTM, MINDEX02.HTM and so on, Master INDEXes, which contain all of the names of the executables and program names, but without direct links to the specific information.

Of course, there are links from the MINDEX and MINDEX## pages to the PENINDEX.HTM page (which does contain the links to the specific information.

To search for a specific program or executable name in the PENINDEX page, you may press "Control-F" to initiate a text string "Find" within Netscape Navigator, Firefox or Internet Explorer.

In order to access the detail information, you must have "javascript" enabled.

My short list may be found at Program and Executable Names Index (PENINDEX.HTM)
(opens in a new browser window and was previously called the Short List).

I will try to keep this updated monthly.

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updated 17 November 2005 0328 PST