1

Programs are constantly gumming up my windows-10 system by installing crud that I don't want as startup programs, "services", and scheduled tasks.

The excellent Autoruns utility lets me see the crud after the fact.

What I want is a program that monitors for new startup stuff and alerts me as it attempts to be installed. So that it can be blocked or immediately removed.

Google searches for "windows", plus terms like "startup" or "autorun", etc. yield a whole lot of results, none of which seem to apply.

Is there a trustworthy tool that does this?

Improve this question
3
  • I wondered the same and couldn't found anything good. I'm tempting of attempting to write it myself :D
    – Alejandro
    Commented Mar 25, 2018 at 2:29
  • @Alejandro, that's a thought. It could be as simple as polling some folders and registry keys, maybe? Bonus if it also triggered off any install hooks that windows may have...
    – Brock Adams
    Commented Mar 25, 2018 at 3:01
  • Pooling will certainly do, my only doubt being the timing interval and the disk load it imposses. Windows has no concept of "install", but it has some hooks for monitor file changes, and I think it also has for registry changes, that's a much better option.
    – Alejandro
    Commented Mar 25, 2018 at 19:44

1 Answer 1

Reset to default
1

There are a lot of Startup monitoring applications available, some better and some worse... (but I doubt anything as complete - with all types of startups - as Autoruns.)

SterJo Startup Patrol is a nice and polished one. (But the installer might install Adware, so be aware, or use the portable version which doesn't do that.)

Another popular software that has this functionality is WinPatrol. It might be an overkill since it does more stuff.

Improve this answer
1
  • Thanks, trying both -- though WinPatrol sure doesn't make it easy to tell the various editions and programs apart.
    – Brock Adams
    Commented Mar 27, 2018 at 2:14

Your Answer

By clicking “Post Your Answer”, you agree to our terms of service and acknowledge you have read our privacy policy.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged or ask your own question.