I accidentally removed my Startup Folder in AppsData so the StartUp Tab in my Task Manager is empty. However, some applications still start up automatically. What do I do in order to stop these applications from starting up? I'm afraid that my BIOS will take a long time to start up once I download more programs in my PC.
There are several places in Windows which specify start-up programs. You can see the full list using the msconfig.exe utility.
More details here: https://www.howtogeek.com/74523/how-to-disable-startup-programs-in-windows/
Also, note that some programs register themselves as "services" and started by the Windows Service Manager, so you might take a look on "Control Panel"->"Administrative tools"->"Services". But be careful, most of the stuff there is essential for normal system operation.
Related
Yesterday I ran a BIOS update on a Windows7 computer. The BIOS update tool performed a shutdown of Windows and without restarting the computer (so directly after Windows shutdown), a DOS-like tool started that updated the BIOS.
I searched the WWW but all I can find is how to execute applications at Windows shutdown (so before windows goes down) or at logoff (logoff scripts).
Does anyone have any clue on how to achieve this?
It is my guess that the machine had in fact performed a soft-reboot and was running BIOS code. That's the usual approach, and in some cases the soft-reboot may not be visible to the user, i.e., the BIOS self-update code may run before the POST.
However, it is (or at least used to be) possible to run Windows code post-shutdown, although obviously it is limited in what it can do. The key information can be found in the MSDN library entry on the Service Control Handler Function:
After this time expires, system shutdown proceeds regardless of whether service shutdown is complete. Note that if the system is left in the shutdown state (not restarted or powered down), the service continues to run.
So, at least in principle, all you need to do is to install a service that asks for shutdown notification but does not actually stop when shutdown occurs, and then instruct Windows to shut down without rebooting or powering off. I have actually seen this happen, but only on older versions of Windows (before automatically powering off at shutdown became the default!) so I can't guarantee that it still works, although it definitely did once.
It should, however, be noted that this will not necessarily give you the sort of environment you may be thinking of. For example, device drivers are not necessarily unloaded before shutdown; after all, what would be the point?
You can run Local Group policy - gpedit.msc (From run).
Under Computer Configuration choose Windows Settings
choose Scripts(Startup/Shutdown)
On Shutdown properties you can add script and also mention parameters if needed.
I also advised you to look at the following question - how to delay shutdown and run a process in window service
Little snitch is an application i installed and does not show up in startup items in system preferences, however the application always starts up whenever the system starts, how does it do this, is there some other place where applications can register themselves so they launch on startup.
EDIT: BELONGS ON SUPERUSER.
Little Snitch runs at a much lower level than normal applications; it is a Kernel extension (kext) which integrates with the Mac OS kernel.
This is why you don't see it appear as a 'normal' registered program in your startup items list, because it's not one of those.
Somebody has put a list of files installed by Little Snitch here (link is a couple of years old)
A 'Daemon' or a 'Launch Agent' can do that.
Have a look in /Library/LaunchAgent or /Library/LaunchDaemon
There will be quite a few processes that launch without being in the Startup Items section of System Preferences.
Al right! This might sound crazy.
I want to know if it is possible to see the code or something that a specific process is using. I have a scheduled task that is supposed to be ran by a process. The font end to this app says that the scheduled task executed successfully, but I don't see anything in the logs.
I want to know if there is a tool to see what a process is doing.
The best suite is Windows Sysinternals by Mark Russinovich (now bought by Microsoft).
Get it here.
Use Process Explorer.
Ever wondered which program has a
particular file or directory open? Now
you can find out. Process Explorer
shows you information about which
handles and DLLs processes have opened
or loaded.
The Process Explorer display consists
of two sub-windows. The top window
always shows a list of the currently
active processes, including the names
of their owning accounts, whereas the
information displayed in the bottom
window depends on the mode that
Process Explorer is in: if it is in
handle mode you'll see the handles
that the process selected in the top
window has opened; if Process Explorer
is in DLL mode you'll see the DLLs and
memory-mapped files that the process
has loaded. Process Explorer also has
a powerful search capability that will
quickly show you which processes have
particular handles opened or DLLs
loaded.
The unique capabilities of Process
Explorer make it useful for tracking
down DLL-version problems or handle
leaks, and provide insight into the
way Windows and applications work.
I'm not sure which technology you are using, but you could try to remotely debug the application the application, for example using Visual Studio. But to be able to do this you'll need the correct debug information files (.pdb).
If this is your own application you are trying to monitor, inserting some extra logging of some sort will be the easiest solution.
Another option you have is to make a memory dump at the moment you think the application is running. A memory dump is basically a snapshot of the entire memory. YOu can then use a tool like WinDbg to examine the contents of the dump.
Maybe you can give us a little bit more information?
I have a console application (written in VB6 ) which is behaving strangely on my machine. I kick it off from the command line and what should be a two minute job drops straight back to the prompt - if I run this on another machine the executable will sit and wait until the job finishes before returning control back to the prompt. If I check process explorer I can see that the executable is running as a background process and other than this strange background-ness is running as expected.
Any thoughts on why this could be happening? (Running on 32-bit Windows XP Pro SP3.)
It's totally unclear whether this is an application you wrote and have the source code for. If that's the case, you need to get in and start debugging. At the least, use OutputDebugString to send information about what's going on to any number of potential viewers. Taking that a step further, consider rewiring the app using the Console module I wrote, along with vbAdvance to recompile. This combination will allow you the full power of the VB6 IDE to debug within. No more guessing about what's going on.
Then again, if it's not your app, I'm not sure what VB6 has to do with it and wish you the best of luck trying to figure out what's up.
It sounds to me as though the app isn't being recognised as a console app on one of your machines. Console apps weren't officially supported in VB6, although there are some well-known hacks for creating them (particularly the free add-in vbAdvance). Possibly your console app is a bit unreliable? If Windows thinks your app is a GUI rather than a console app, it won't wait for it to finish.
As a pragmatic workaround: try launching with start /wait rather than just using the exename. That forces the command prompt to wait for the program to finish, whether it's a GUI app or a console app.
Sounds like an error is occurring that is being 'swallowed' by the application. Do you have the source code?
Errors in VB6 apps are often due to some COM component not installed and/or registered.
Download SysInternals Process Monitor and this will show up accesses to ProgIDs that fail (uninstalled/unregistered COM components).
Check out: Process Monitor - Hands-On Labs and Examples.
Have you checked permissions? Is the application accessing any network based resources?
The product we are working on allows the user to easily set it up to run automatically whenever the computer is started. This is helpful because the product is part of the basic work environment of most of our users.
This feature was implemented not so long ago and for a while all was well, but when we started testing this feature on Vista the product started behaving really weird on startup. Specifically, our product makes use of another product (lets call it X) that it launches whenever it needs its services. The actual problem is that whenever X is launched immediately after log-on, it crashes or reports critical errors related to disk access (this happens even when X is launched directly - not through our product).
This happens whenever we run our product by registering it in the "Run" key in the registry or place a shortcut to it in the "Startup" folder inside the "Start Menu", even when we put a delay of ~20 seconds before actually starting to run. When we changed the delay to 70 seconds, all is well.
We tried to reproduce the problem by launching our product manually immediately after logon (by double-clicking on a shortcut placed on the desktop) but to no avail.
Now how is it possible that applications that run normally a minute after logon report such hard errors when starting immediately after logon?
This is the effect of a new feature in Vista called "Boxing":
Windows has several mechanisms that allow the user/admin to set up applications to automatically run when windows starts. This feature is mostly used for one of these purposes:
1. Programs that are part of the basic work environment of the user, such that the first action the user would usually take when starting the computer is to start them.
2. All sorts of background "agents" - skype, messenger, winamp etc.
When too many (or too heavy) programs are registered to run on startup the end result is that the user can't actually do anything for the first few seconds/minutes after login, which can be really annoying. In comes Vista's "Boxing" feature:
Briefly, Vista forces all programs invoked through the Run key to operate at low priority for the first 60 seconds after login. This affects both I/O priority (which is set to Very Low) and CPU priority. Very Low priority I/O requests do not pass through the file cache, but go directly to disk. Thus, they are much slower than regular I/O.
The length of the boxing period is set by the registry value:
"HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Advanced\DelayedApps\Delay_Sec".
For a more detailed explanation see here and here
The program probably needs some more info put into its properties. It needs to "Run As", instead of just running.
Maybe this application should be developed as a service, instead of a program to be launched, or you could have service that launches the program when its determined the best window of opportunity.