Startup Manager - making it easier manage startup programs

by Neo at www.neolics.com

v 1.0.4

PLEASE NOTE

This is software is provided as is, features are not fixed and may be added/removed at any time. The author does not take any responsibility for any loss or damage to the end user through use of this software. Use at your own risk.

Requirements

You must also be using Windows.
You must have the files listed in the "dependencies.txt" file.

Introduction

Startup Manager give you complete control over the multitude of programs, applications, batch files etc that may be set to start with Windows. Applications can be looked up and identified with ease. The interface for the Startup Manager is designed to be easy to follow and the various options and functions should be fairly obvious in what they do, which is why this readme is intentionally short.

Glossary

SAM - Startup Application Monitor : this monitors the startup folders and registry for applications that try to register themselves to start with Windows.

Priority - this is a specific Windows term and it refers to how much of the CPU's time should be allocated to a specific program or process. A program with a 'High' priority will get more CPU time than one with a 'Low' priority.

Tabs

User

Items listed in the user's startup folder.

Common

Items listed in the common startup folder that applies to all users on the PC.

HKLM Run

Items listed in the Registry for the PC (local machine).

HKCU Run

Items listed in the Registry for the current user.

Run Once

Items listed in the Registry that are set to start with Windows, once only.

Delayed

Startup Manager is able to run applications with a specific delay after Windows starts up. The delay is specified in seconds - for example, if an application has a delay of 10 seconds, it will start 10 seconds after Windows loads (or the "Run delayed applications" menu is clicked). Startup Manager is only able to run the delayed applications if Startup Manager is registered to start with Windows.

Alternatively, if the delay is negative, the Startup Manager will wait for the CPU to become 'idle' before running the application. Applications with negative delays are run in ascending order, so that an application with a delay of "-10" will be run before an application of "-5".

Delayed items can also have a priority specified - this is only applied after the Startup Manager has run the program in question.

Deleted

When items are deleted from the other tables, they are sent to this table, which acts like a rubbish bin. If items are deleted from this table, they will be permanently removed from Startup Manager.

Known

The SAM is able to monitor when applications register themselves to start with Windows and can ask the user to confirm whether the application should be allowed or not. To prevent the need for asking the user repeatedly for the same application, Startup Manager can 'remember' the user's decision.

If an item is ticked in this table, they will be permitted to register themselves to start with Windows. If an item is not ticked in this table, they will be not permitted to register themselves to start with Windows.

Processes

All the running processes are listed. Priorities of individual or multiple processes can be altered using the context menu, and these changes take immediate affect.

Another feature of this tab is the ability to remember a process priority. If an item is ticked in this tab, Startup Manager will remember (and apply) the priority setting for the item specified the next time the Startup Manager is run. Note: This saved priority is applied to all instances of a program - if there are several instances of a program, they will all have the same priority. Therefore, ticking more than one items that share the same name would be pointless, since the the priority of only the first ticked item would be applied.

About

About Startup Manager software.

Menu

Context Menu

• Identify
  - Search for the selected executable on the a range of websites.
• New item - creates a new item in the selected table.
• Delete - deletes the selected item(s).
• Enable / Disable - toggles the tick of the selected item(s).
• Edit item - edits the selected item.
• Run now - runs the selected item.
• Copy to clipboard
  - Filename - copies the filename of the selected item to the clipboard.
  - Path without arguments - copies the path of the selected item to the clipboard, without any arguments that might be specified.
  - Path with arguments - copies the path of the selected item to the clipboard, including any arguments that might be specified.
• Record setting - records the selected item in the 'Known' table, so that the SAM does not ask the user to confirm the item in the future.
• Tick / Untick
  - Tick All - ticks all the items in the current table.
  - Tick Selected - ticks the selected items in the current table.
  - Untick All - unticks all the items in the current table.
  - Untick Selected - unticks the selected items in the current table.
• Move to - offers to move the selected items to a different table.
• Set Priority - applies to the Processes tab only. The priority of each item can be selected from the following levels:
  Realtime, High, Above Normal, Normal, Below Normal and Low.
• Open container folder - opens the folder where the selected item is stored in Windows Explorer.
  

File

• Save settings - save the current settings.
• Backup all settings - backup the current settings to a backup file.
• Load a backup file - load a backup file from the list of saved backups.
• Exit - exit Startup Manager.

Action

• Delete duplicates
  - in current table - deletes all duplicates (by application path) in the current table.
  - in ALL tables - deletes all duplicates (by application path) in all the tables.
• Record items
  - in current table - all the items in table are recorded under the 'Known' table, so that the monitoring does not ask the user to confirm these items in the future.
  - in ALL tables - all the items in all (applicable) tables are recorded under the 'Known' table.
• Delete unticked items in current table - deletes all the unticked items in the current table.
• Refresh & reload tables - updates all startup items and reloads the settings from file.

• Import from Startup Control Panel - imports settings from Mike Lin's Startup Control Panel software.
• Run delayed applications - runs the applications in the 'Delayed' table.
• Send to system tray - sends Startup Manager to the system tray.
• Monitor changes - toggles the SAM.
• Prevent delayed apps from registering - all delayed applications are listed in the 'Known' table (unticked) so that delayed applications do not register themselves as that are run by the Startup Manager.
• Make all delayed applications idle - all delayed applications are given negative delays (in ascending order) so that they will only run when the CPU is idle.
• Reset window size & position - resets the Startup Manager window's size and position.

Options

• Run on startup - set Startup Monitor to run when Windows starts up - this necessary if you wish the Startup Manager to run any applications in the 'Delayed' table.
• Do not save on exit - by default Startup Manager will save the settings when it is exited. If this is ticked, the settings will not be saved.
• Send to system tray on close - if this is ticked, when the Startup Manager is closed, it will be sent to the system tray rather than simply exit.
• Exit after delayed app run - if ticked, the Startup Manager will exit after all the delayed applications are run (at Windows startup, for example).
• Ignore self-made changes - when ticked, changes made by Startup Manager will be ignored by the SAM.
• Choose profile on startup - if ticked, the user will be prompter to select a profile when Startup Manager starts.

• Set idle settings:
  - CPU threshold - this is the threshold of the CPU usage (as a percentage) below which the Startup Manager takes the CPU to be idle. For example, if this is set to 20%, then the Startup Manager will consider the CPU to be idle if it goes below 20% usage.
  - Idle time - this is the time (in seconds) the CPU should be 'idle' before an application should be run. This value is available because the CPU usage may momentarily drop below the threshold for a few seconds, but this may not mean the CPU is completely at rest.

Profiles

The Startup Manager is able to deal with multiple profiles. These could be for different users and / or different situations. For example, one profile might be created to run the bar minimum on startup while another profile may be used to run many applications. If no additional profiles are created then the default profile will be used.

Note: Currently, profiles are limited in that they can only have different programs enabled in the "Delayed" and "Known" tabs. They cannot have different programs enabled in the "User", "Common", "HKLM Run", "HKCU Run" and "Run Once" tabs.This should not be a big problem since the "Delayed" tab should be able to provide the same functionality.

Shortcut keys

• "?" key = identify on the Process Library website
• "+" key (number pad) = new item
• space key = toggle item
• enter key = edit item