Okay, this is my situation:  I'm have several programs that run at startup and I think it could be a benefit to decide for myself what order they start.  These are the startup programs:  I have an APC UPC with their Powerchute software, KeyWallet (a password rememberer), SpeedUpMyPC, Firefox preloader, Norton Antivirus, AdAware, CounterSpy, Pest Patrol, Spybot Search and Destroy, WinPatrol, PrevxPro and Spysweeper.

Naturally, it takes a little while for all these to load and what I'd like to have is to first start Windows Task MANAGER, with the Processes tab selected and prioritized for CPU usage with the process using the highest percentage of CPU time at the top, then SpeedUpMyPC, which has a nifty systray display that graphically shows the percentage of CPU, RAM and Page Memory in use at any moment, and by using Task Manager and SpeedUpMyPC as the first two programs that load I could see which of the programs are taking the bigger chunks of time to initialize (no, I'm not having any conflicts between the various programs and I do intend to keep the full panoply of anti-malware programs because each one seems to catch stuff the others miss).

I'm not having any trouble with my computer, I just thought it would be an interesting exercise to be able to make my own decisions on which programs start first.  I am looking forward to sometime in the probably not to distant future when along with viruses, trojans, KEYLOGGERS and other malware we'll be encountering rootkit stuff and would then want to have whatever rootkit eliminator software start first, so this is a chance to try out my idea and see what happens.

Thanks, in advance, for your help, and it's been a real education reading through the various threads that have already been posted on this site.  I really appreciate people taking some of their valuable time and knowledge to help others (an atitude that is so rare anymore).

WaltWhy do you need all these programs!Norton Antivirus, AdAware, CounterSpy, Pest Patrol, Spybot Search and Destroy, WinPatrol, PrevxPro and Spysweeper.


pray tell .........us.....even my uncle in glasgow.....does not have these on his pc!If you use your startup tab in WinPatrol, right click & select full report.
You will see most of these programs start from the registry & you could re-arrange the order in there.
I don't think you will see much difference because windows doesn't wait for one to load before STARTING the next one, it just executes the file & moves straight on, so the loading (like 1st to last) is governed by the time it takes each program to load.
For myself, I load the barebones for programs & services, you can set a lot of rarely used services to manual so they only start on demand.Merlin (I LIKE that name and picture!),

For example, in the last hour I updated definitions on all my anti-malware programs and ran full system scans.  Counterspy found and allowed me to remove 17 instances of Wild Tangent, yet when I ran Spybot Search and Destroy it found another instance.  I've see this, as well as times when one came through with a clean scan and another, run immediately after, found something.  Other than a warning message when I start Spybot, telling me that it might identify two of Pest Patrol's files as problems and to ignore them if it does (it hasn't, yet) I've not had any problems or conflicts with all these installed.  I do only run one anti-virus because I've read that two or more can cause problems, and I've got the firewall in my router set pretty tightly since it conflicts with any of the software firewalls (it's from D-Link and they told me that was the problem when I was having trouble setting up my wireless LAN).  I don't do a lot of surfing the web into wild and wooly territory but I've not had any serious problems with viruses, worms, trojans, etc., and I'm sort of an old fashioned belt and suspenders kind of guy so it makes me feel safer, whether or not there is really a significant increase in protection.  Like my wife says sometimes, "humor me."

WaltFed,

So it really doesn't matter which order they start?  That explains why the order of icons in the system tray isn't ALWAYS the same, sometimes one program will (for who knows what reason) finish loading earlier than another and the icon will be closer to the clock, then at another time (again, who knows why) another program will beat it to the finish line and its icon will be closer to the clock in the system tray.  Well, I had always wondered why that was, and now I know.

Thanks for the lesson.

Walt

ps  Any ideas about my question regarding rootkits?  I know just a little about them but it seems that they start before any of the anti-malware programs can and hide deeply within the OS.  Am I worrying with no good reason to, and do you think the gurus at the anti-malware companies will come up with something to keep those nasty little buggers out of our computers when we need them to?

W Quote

Why do you need all these programs!Norton Antivirus, AdAware, CounterSpy, Pest Patrol, Spybot Search and Destroy, WinPatrol, PrevxPro and Spysweeper.
 

pray tell .........us.....even my uncle in glasgow.....does not have these on his pc!