I just love the tools from Sysinternals and that includes Autoruns. If you want to know what happens behind the GUI when you boot your Windows PC and login, Autoruns is the tool for you. I am not talking about some fancy automatic tool that can speed up your boot time with 200%. This is a tool where you manual can disable or delete programs and services that you did not knew was starting behind your back. I know you can do some of this with the built-in MSConfig program in Windows, but this tool can just do so much more. When you start up the program it scans your system and shows you: programs, services, task and a lot more information about what is running on your PC, divided into tabs you can go through.
Look what I found with Autoruns 😮
You will be amazed how much are actually running hidden from your eyes on a Windows PC. For research for this blog I did of cause run the program on my own Windows 7 PC. Normally I would say that I am pretty good to cleanup my PC and don’t install a lot of freeware programs just for fun, but here is what I found and removed:
- 1 Service left over from some Client VPN software
- 1 registry key pointing to a file that did not exist anymore.
- 2 old VPN client program I have not used for 4 months.
- 2 programs belonging to my old phone that I don’t have anymore.
- 5 old schedule task that was configured never to run again
- A couple of programs that I don’t use any more
- The left over from Microsoft’s Browser Choice (CreateChoiceProcessTask)
I dare you to run Autoruns on your computer
I must admit that I was a bit surprised to find that much that I don’t need on my PC, because I always do some regular cleaning on my computer. Do you dare to run Autoruns on your computer? Let me hear if you find this program useful.
Download Autoruns from Sysinternals
(Warning, be careful what you delete. If you don’t know what it is leave it alone. You might also want to create a good backup before you start)
Just another one of the great tools out there that compete with MSConfig.
Haven’t used this one yet, but i’ll give it a try in a couple of minutes.
Hi Beth
You might be surprised how much is actually starting in the background that you have not asked for. I know I was.
Hi Thomas,
I configure autoruns by using MSCONFIG. However, it seems like this software is a great tool to enhance your computer speed. I’ll give this a shot and hopefully it will also remove registry keys that’s no longer in use.
See what programs are configured to startup automatically when your system boots and you login. Autoruns also shows you the full list of Registry and file locations where applications can configure auto-start settings.
Hi Thomas (das ist ein schöner, alet deutscher Name) – tolle Tipps für meinen Computer. Danke dir dafür. Sylvia.
Guten tag Sylvia 🙂
I am glad you liked the post
It’s actually a nice and useful piece of info. I’m happy that you shared this helpful information with us. Please stay us up to date like this. Thanks for sharing.
After reading this i download the autruns and really its great tool. Every system admin should use it. I am newbie in MCSE and thanks dude.
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Sure autorun are pains. Having something like this in the computer will surely cause you difficulty…
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Wow !! Its a nice tool. After Reading your information, i downloaded this tools and used my computer. Its working good.