System Tray tool for ASUS video cards. If disabled you lose all the ASUS specific video card options in Control Panel -> Display Properties -> Advanced as well as the System Tray shortcuts toolbar
"AnyDVD - descrambles DVD-Movies automatically in the background and the DVD appears unprotected and region code free. Also removes prohibited operations from the DVD such as skipping adverts - hence the ""U"" recommendation"
"System Tray access to AnyDVD from SlySoft - which descrambles DVD-Movies automatically in the background and the DVD appears unprotected and region code free. Also removes prohibited operations from the DVD such as skipping adverts"
"AnyTime Organizer Deluxe from Individual Software Inc - ""all the tools you need to organize your calendar to-do list and address book are combined in a familiar interface with hundreds of printable calendars detailed expense reports and a full range of programmable alarms"""
"AnyTime Organizer Deluxe from Individual Software Inc - ""all the tools you need to organize your calendar to-do list and address book are combined in a familiar interface with hundreds of printable calendars detailed expense reports and a full range of programmable alarms"""
"AnyTime Organizer Deluxe from Individual Software Inc - ""all the tools you need to organize your calendar to-do list and address book are combined in a familiar interface with hundreds of printable calendars detailed expense reports and a full range of programmable alarms"""
"""matcli.exe is a motive Assistant Command line interface that gathers information about your system's identity like your name email address city county etc and gets written to a log file"". The AOL Self Support Tool is required to run with the Help and Support program. If you uncheck AOL and and then run Help and Support it will add another AOL entry in the startup menu. If you remove this software in ""add/remove programs"" some help menus in help and support will not be available. You decide"
Part of the AOL Connection Suite and installs an icon on the system tray offering easy access to AOL's additional utilities and functions. This program is a non-essential process and is installed for ease of use
"AOL's TopSpeed web acceleration technology supposedly helps to make web browsing faster. Most important for those users who still access AOL via dial-up"
AOL Connectivity Service - starts an automatic function that restores the connection should you lose it while online. Negates having to go through the procedure of signing back on manually
AOL Connectivity Service - starts an automatic function that restores the connection should you lose it while online. Negates having to go through the procedure of signing back on manually
Run on Gateway Astra computers and maybe a few others. Designed to repair a bad registry key in Gateway computers that would not allow AOL to run correctly. Not seen much any more and should only run once
"APC PowerChute® Personal Edition - ""safe system shutdown software with sophisticated power management functions."" Appears as a service in XP/Vista and under the ""RunServices"" registry key in Win98"
"Sage Software's ACT! The application pre-loader (apl.exe) is a self contained executable that pre-loads the necessary .NET framework and ACT! 2005 assemblies. This pre-loading of assemblies enhances ACT! startup view load and dialog load times in some areas of the application"
Touchpad software for laptop PC's. For instance it is found on the Panasonic and Sony Vaio machines and allows part of the touchpad to be used for document or Web-page scrolling. Required for proper functioning of the pointing software but not required for the laptop to work
"Vital Application Console - part of POS-partner 2000 point-of-sale software from Vital. This is the taskbar icon and is enabled at startup by the "Auto-start when OS starts" option. Required for a connection to be established"
"From WinPatrol PLUS by BillP Studios - ""This file installs with iTunes and is used when syncing your iPhone iTouch iPod etc."" See here for more information"
"Novell Zenworks Application Explorer Executable. ""For almost all users the Novell ZENworks agent (either Application Launcher or Application Explorer) will be run via the user's login script on each successful login. ZENworks is used to periodically deliver software updates and is also used to install the remote management components."""
"AppPlus - ""menu bar or tray launcher that docks to your desktop floats or sits in your System Tray. Create graphic/text-based buttons that launch any number of programs Websites e-mail addresses or folders (which open in the AppPlus Menu System)"""
"""Panda ClientShield with TruPrevent is designed for companies that want the best protection for their workstations. It protects against viruses and other known and unknown threats including spam spyware dangerous or time-wasting content phishing scams hackers and intruders"""
"ScreenScenes ""Aquatica Water Worlds"" screensaver. The freeware version comes with GAIN branded ads (pop-ups and others). ScreenScenes do however offer you the option of doing away with the ads by purchasing the screensaver for a whopping $30. Please note that Claria Corporation no longer support GAIN-Supported software - see here"
"Aqua Dock - 'free program that allows you to have an ""OS X"" style nice animated launchbar/taskbar on your screen that reacts to your mouse when you mouse over it. Users can customize the look of each item on the dock and set various animation options for when the mouse is over an item on the dock. It is very easy to configure'"
"Arcade Rockstar (now Gamevance) - free arcade games and prize tournaments. The program itself is clean but the TOS and privacy statement say that you agree to allow the program to track/report your surfing and put popup advertising on your computer"
"Related to Armor2net personal firewall (possibly contains or is related to a product known as ArmorWall - which is a known rogue see here - hence the ""U"" recommendation)"
"Advanced Registry Optimizer - ""scan identify clean and repair errors in your Windows registry with a single click"". Reminder that states that you are in trial mode"
"Software for Netgear wireless network cards. Unknown whether it is required for the wireless card to run but does not seem to be a resource hog. Not required for laptop to run if the wireless network card will not be used. Is it at all required?"
"Aluria Software's spyware removal tool - we can't really recommend this product as Aluria have recently partnered with WhenU the well known adware company see here and here"
"System Tray access to and notifications for avast! Antivirus - giving left-click access to the On-Access Scanner right-click access to other options and event notifications"
"ASIO (Audio Stream In/Out) drivers for the SoundBlaster Audigy 2 series soundcards - for recording and home project studios. Required if you use this functionality"
"ASIO (Audio Stream In/Out) drivers for the SoundBlaster Audigy 2 series soundcards - for recording and home project studios. Required if you use this functionality"
"Stealth Keylogger keystroke logger/monitoring program - remove unless you installed it yourself! Note that rundll32.exe is a legitimate Microsoft file used to launch DLL file types and shouldn't be deleted"
"Active Security Monitor from AOL - helps you determine how vulnerable your PC is to computer viruses spyware and other dangers and learn what steps you can take to improve your protection"
"Added by the DLOADER-QI TROJAN! Note - this is not the legitimate csrss.exe process which is always located in %System% and should not normally figure in Msconfig/Startup! This one is located in %Windir%"
System recovery software supplied with some Acer notebook PCs. Similar to GoBack and the restore program in WinXP allowing you to restore a PC back to a working state with minimal re-entry
"Voyetra Audio Station - part of Voyetra's Ultimate MP3 & CD Manager. MP3 and digital music jukebox/organizer"
DISCLAIMER: It is assumed that users are familiar with the operating
system they are using and comfortable with making the suggested changes. I will
not be held responsible if changes you make cause a system failure.
This is NOT a list of tasks/processes taken from Task Manager
or the Close Program window (CTRL+ALT+DEL) but a list of startup
applications, although you will find some of them listed via this method.
Pressing CTRL+ALT+DEL identifies programs that are currently running - not
necessarily at startup. For a list of tasks/processes you should try
WinTasks 5 Standard/Professional from LIUtilities or the list at
AnswersThatWork. Therefore, before ending a task/process via CTRL+ALT+DEL
just because it has an "X" recommendation, please check whether it's in MSCONFIG
or the registry first. An example would be "svchost.exe" - which doesn't appear
in either under normal conditions but does via CTRL+ALT+DEL. If in doubt, don't
do anything.