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Reviewing Start-Up Programs

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Corrine:
Recently, a new WinPatrol user said that they had no idea what start-up programs can be/should be stopped.  This person primarily uses the laptop for web surfing, e-mail, and Microsoft Office programs and asked for advice as to how to go through the start-up programs to determine what was necessary and what could be removed from start-up.

Users of WinPatrol PLUS have a distinct advantage when reviewing programs since they have use of the WinPatrol Knowledge Base.  With WinPatrol PLUS, merely right-click the program in question and select PLUS Info. 

Knowledge Base Sample:



For non-PLUS users as well as the occasional situation when a program is not included in the Knowledge Base, there are other ways for determining whether the program should remain in start-up.   Although you can search items, one of the best sources to help determine what you should leave in start-up and what isn't required or is optional is the SystemLookup - Startup List database.

WinPatrol Log

With a large number of files to look up, the first step is to create a WinPatrol Log.  Merely launch WinPatrol and select WinPatrol Log from the Options tab or, when on anther tab, right-click and select WinPatrol Log:



The log will be created quickly and open in a new browser tab.  In addition to Platform, Browser and Memory, the WinPatrol Log will include information on the following:

* Startup Programs
* Active Tasks
* Scheduled Tasks
* IE Helpers
* File Types
* Services
For our purposes, we want to look at a couple of items from the WinPatrol Log in the Start-up Programs section:

* NvCplDaemon    NvCpl.dll,NvStartup                 NVIDIA Display Properties Extension
    Version: 7.15.10.9729         (C) NVIDIA Corporation. All rights reserved.
    Location: HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run
    Path: C:\Windows\system32\NvCpl.dll,NvStartup
    First Detected by WinPatrol: 05/09/2010 6:39 PM
    Click for Plus Info


* NvSvc    nvsvc.dll,nvsvcStart                 NVIDIA Driver Helper Service, Version 97.29
    Version: 7.15.10.9729         (C) NVIDIA Corporation. All rights reserved.
    Location: HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run
    Path: C:\Windows\system32\nvsvc.dll,nvsvcStart
    First Detected by WinPatrol: 05/09/2010 6:39 PM
    Click for Plus Info

System Lookup

The file names we want to investigate in System Lookup are shown in bold above, NvCpl.dll.  Going to SystemLookup - Startup List, pasting NvCpl.dll in the search box and clicking the search icon results in the following:



Note that the highlighted results match the WinPatrol Log.  Also see that the entry has a status of U, which from the key is indicated as User's choice.  This item can be disabled or removed from Start-up.

Conversely, when searching nvsvc.dll, the related NVIDIA entry from the WinPatrol log,  System Lookup shows a status of Y, which means it should be left to run at start-up. 

System Lookup Status Key:
Y = Normally leave to run at start-up
N = Not required - often infrequently used tasks that can be started manually, if necessary
U = User's choice - depends whether a user deems it necessary
X = Malware, spyware, adware, or other potentially unwanted items
? = Currently unknown status

Additional keys of note:

Status Key:
X = Malware, spyware, adware, or other potentially unwanted items
L = Legitimate items
O = Open to debate
? = Currently unknown status


Warnings: 

* Status Entries with a Y should be left in start-up. 
* Be sure to leave your antivirus software in start-up.  To have the advantage of any licensed real-time anti-malware programs, you would want to keep them in start-up as well.  The same is true of WinPatrol.  For "Scotty" to be effective, you need to leave WinPatrol.exe in start-up.
* Do not panic when you looking up something like ctfmon.exe, which takes you to this System Lookup page.  If you have Microsoft Office in Start-up, WinPatrol would show the location as C:\WINDOWS\system32\ctfmon.exe, which is the correct location, although, it is not needed to be in start-up.
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