Autoruns 10 Utility Shows All Startup Locations

Nothing exposes a big computer programming flaw like a software utility created to fix that bug. Autoruns is a Windows based utility that does just one simple thing. Autoruns shows you all of the programs and services set to run at startup on a Windows computer system. Only, it is NOT a simple thing.

Originally, the only programs that started running automatically at boot up were those that were required by the operating system in order to make the computer work. However, programs added to the folder labeled "Startup" on Windows computers would also run at startup.

It turns out that people don’t necessarily want a bunch of programs automatically running every time that they start up their computer. In fact, most people would rather start programs when, and only when, they needed to use them. So, savvy computer users began deleting programs out of the Startup menu and the race between crappy, bloated, software and computer system users was on.

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Software developers can’t wean themselves off the crutch of starting their software automatically or pre-loading some or all of a computer program at boot time. Microsoft kicked this trend off by putting a Microsoft Office toolbar that nobody wanted – especially when they found out how much system power it wasted to run – in the startup folder. Other software developers followed cramming toolbars and other useless items into the various start at boot locations available on Windows operating system computers.

Bloated Adobe Acrobat Reader

Adobe became the poster child for system resource abuse when it began pre-loading a hefty chunk of its overweight Acrobat Reader at boot time.

As PDF files became a more commonly used format, the glaring bloat and inefficiency of Adobe software became more apparent to even non-expert computer users. When users were browsing a website with their Internet browser and clicked on a link that was to a PDF file, nothing happened.

Actually, that isn’t really true. What was true, was that nothing SEEMED to happen. What was actually happening, was that Adobe Acrobat Reader was struggling to load its enormous self in order to display the PDF link. It took literally 10 seconds on some well configured computers for a PDF page to load the first time. It got so bad that people stopped clicking on PDF links because they knew that meant a long weight for even a one-page document. In addition, savvy computer users turned to Acrobat Reader alternatives written by other developers.

In response, instead of re-coding and streamlining it Heifer of a PDF viewer, Adobe chose instead to penalize every computer in the world with Adobe Reader installed by pre-loading part of its software at startup and leave it running the whole time the computer was in use just so that its reader would appear to start faster. Of course, if you are going to abuse people’s system resources, you need to hide it and make sure that they don’t just delete a shortcut or something to end pre-loading the bloated software.

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As it turns out there are literally hundreds, or maybe even thousands, of ways that a software developer can force their applications or utilities to run at start up time on a Windows computer. Unfortunately, there are far fewer ways that users can view and manage all of these vampire processes that suck the performance blood out of computer systems.

Using MSCONFIG to configure which programs run at startup is a joke. Not only can programs easily re-add themselves to startup whenever you do end up running them, MSCONFIG only shows a tiny fraction of the ways that software can be installed to run at bootup. Autoruns 10 was recently released by the folks at Sysinternals (which was acquired by Microsoft, at least in part, no doubt, to stem the tide of data that made Microsoft Windows look bloated, badly configured, and deeply flawed).

Autoruns 10 claim to fame is that it is the most comprehensive startup manager utility in existence because it scans hundreds more potentially hidden startup locations than other startup configuration manager software does.

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Does anyone else see the painful irony here?

In order for the user to be able to make their computer do what they want it to do, they need a special extra tool to sniff out and find all the tricks software development companies use to get the computer to do what the software company wants regardless of what the user wants.

Considering the slow boot time was one of the top reasons people hate Vista so much, you would think that Microsoft would want to put an end to this practice. After all, part of the reason Vista boots so slow and one of the things that can drag the bootup time for Windows XP and the startup time for Windows 7 is all of these auto-starting programs. It doesn’t make the poor quality software that these companies sell look bad, it makes Windows look bad. A quick load would be one way to make people love Windows 7.

Unfortunately, Microsoft depends on these tricks as much as other computer companies, so until they can get their own house in order, users only defense against rogue programs wasting resources is vigilant use of programs like Sysinternals AutoRuns to keep programs from adding themselves to one of the numerous hidden startup locations. Of course, in order to really watch your computer’s resources, you’ll need another third-party utility by, you guessed it, Sysinternals.

Process Explorer is what Task Manager should be, except Task Manager allows software companies to hide what programs and processes they are actually running from Task Manager so, once again, they can look like their software runs better than it really does.

Get Autoruns 10. There isn’t anything else you can do.

Biggest Windows Flaw Also Most Annoying Windows Problem is a post from Best Hubris. All content exclusively written by Freelance Writing Business of ArcticLlama, LLC

Just in case you want to follow along from the beginning, or if your particular wireless networking issue seems more like one of these topics, here are the various articles I’ve written explaining the more advanced wireless network troubleshooting that might help solve your problem with Windows wireless networks. If you just need basic wireless network troubleshooting or a Windows wireless network setup guide, I’ll get you those too.

Wireless Network Problems Windows XP and Windows 7

1. Wireless Network Drops Connection Using Windows 7 Troubleshooting
2. Windows Randomly Disconnects from Wireless Network (XP based, but still applicable to Windows 7)
3. Fix Wireless Network Connectivity Problems in Windows XP
4. Windows 7 Wireless Network Random Disconnecting Issue Fixed Yet?
5. Test Wireless Network Signal Strength and Check for Interference with NetSurveyor

As you can see, I’ve spent a lot of time getting into pretty advanced network troubleshooting. I have tried new wireless network hardware such as new wireless routers and new wireless adapters, but still have not gotten a completely satisfactory solution to the issues with wireless networking on Windows computers.

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It also turns out that the troubles with wireless network on Windows aren’t all Microsoft’s fault. Wireless network hardware vendors are so busy trying to out-market the next guy that they don’t pay any attention to wireless networking standards. They are also more interested in selling their new networking hardware than they are in supporting the existing hardware that they aren’t exactly speedy in providing updated network drivers or firmware either.

Be that as it may, with wireless networking equipment that is on the Windows 7 compatibility list, things should work, and when they don’t that is an error that needs to be fixed.

USB Issue Causes Wireless Network Disconnects?

All of which brings us to today’s potential discovery.

There are two tech support articles on Microsoft’s TechNet website (TechNet is Microsoft’s technical support center for IT Pros) that suggest the issue might not be so much with Windows wireless networking in general, but with a specific type of wireless networking hardware. More specifically, it seems that USB wireless adapters might be the problem.

Consider the number of users on Windows support forums or Microsoft support forums who state that their wireless networking problems happen most frequently during heavy use of the network. For example, gamers playing complex streaming games over high-speed modems complain of being kicked off of the wireless network in the middle of a game. Likewise, many users report wireless connectivity troubles when using BitTorrent or copying a large amount of data.

Then, take a look at this Knowledge Base article that suggests moving large amounts of data across a USB port with a certain type of hardware configuration can cause an issue. This is actually about a USB hard drive, but the concept of a lot of data flowing across a USB device is similar to the wireless network high-traffic problem.

Now, more specific to the wireless network USB adapter comes this article which suggests that when using a USB network adapter after the computer has been left idle for one hour (not uncommon for BitTorrent users or for users copying a lot of data from a server) The Knowledge Base article and attached hotfix don’t mention wireless adapters specifically, but the shoe seems to fit.

Does it work?

I have installed both hotfixes on my PC now. The first did not solve the issue on its own. However, since installing the second hotfix three days ago, I have had no wireless network connectivity interruptions. It will take longer to know for sure, but that is a promising sign.

If you are having this issue, I would recommend installing the above hotfixes in the reverse order. That way, you will only install the fixes that you actually need. (Obviously, this does not apply if you do not have a USB wireless adapter.)

Windows 7 Wireless USB Network Adapter Troubleshooting Disconnect From Internet After Computer Idle For Period of Time is a post from Best Hubris. All content exclusively written by Freelance Writing Business of ArcticLlama, LLC

What is NOT acceptable is being unable to find solutions or workarounds for your problems. More specifically, what is not acceptable is being told that rebooting is a fix, that running in safe mode is a fix, or that disabling your firewall and security software is a fix. If those things are causing a problem, then we need to know WHY and then either adjust them, or the OS so that we can run secure computers. It would be one thing if Microsoft was telling you to disable third-party security software, after all, they can’t fix everyone else’s problems too, but when they are telling you to turn off the Windows Firewall or Security Essentials, that is not acceptable.

Wireless Network Disconnect Problem

While I have thought I have solved the Windows wireless networking issues both Windows XP Wireless Connection Randomly Dropping and Windows 7 Wireless Connection Problems, these issue keep rearing their ugly heads. The odd thing is that I have over time indeed purchased and installed new hardware. I have a new netbook for writing, I have a new PC upstairs (in the same room as the wireless router), and I even have a new wireless router (Baby Smashed!). Still I experience from time to time the dreaded random wireless networking disconnection in Windows 7.

Just to be clear, I have already done all of the standard troubleshooting, including updating all drivers, bios, and firmware. In addition, my wireless network DOES WORK. It connects without fail every time I boot my PC. I can go entire days, and sometimes even several days without a single hiccup. Other times, it seems that I lose my Windows 7 wireless network every 10 or 15 minutes.

Trying to nail down the circumstances under which the wireless connection drop is kind of difficult because I multitask extensively and let the computer do many things in the background. After all, that is the whole point of computers, letting them take care of tasks that so that we can focus our energies and resources on other things. However, over time, it seems that the there are three common scenarios that seem to proceed wireless network problems. Unfortunately, none of these 3 circumstances results in wireless trouble every time. In addition, there are times when the wireless connectivity drops when none of these three events is taking place. Nonetheless, to get anywhere, you have to start somewhere.

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Windows 7 Wireless Network Drops – Common Scenarios

Wireless Network Drop Situation #1: During large (and multiple) file downloads via Bittorrent, Rapidshare downloads, corporate server downloads, VPN downloads, etc. particularly when downloading multiple files at once. Possible causes include network overload, too many connections (old XP number of connections limit issue), too many programs trying to use the network too fast, and Windows 7 inability to keep up or manage the resource.

Wireless Networking Disconnected Scenario #2: Returning to the PC after several minutes or longer. This one is more frequent when downloads have been left running while the computer is not being used, however, it occurs frequently enough on its own to not be discounted. Possible causes include power savings settings, timeouts, security settings trying to lock things down, etc. I have disabled Windows 7 ability to turn off devices such as USB ports in order to save power.

Windows 7 Wireless Network Disconnect Scenario #3: Often the network seems to drop late at night when I am wrapping up my day by reading Facebook and playing some of the Flash-based games on Facebook. I often use Google Chrome to read Facebook and hence to play the games on Facebook. I am investigating whether a similar issue occurs while using Mozilla Firefox instead. However, the intermittent nature of the problem makes it difficult to determine if there is no problem when using Firefox, or if there just has been no problem using Firefox YET.

New Computer Problem – Windows Live Writer Crashing and Throwing Exceptions Whenever Trying to Link or use Tools Options Menu. I’ll let you know if I get this one fixed too

Windows 7 Wireless Network Random Disconnects Fixed Yet? is a post from Best Hubris. All content exclusively written by Freelance Writing Business of ArcticLlama, LLC

Like all good things, this one must come to an end.

Starting on March 1, 2010, computers running Windows 7 RC will start automatically shutting down every two hours as a way to nag remind you to go out an pay for a real version of Windows 7 and upgrade your beta release candidate. In other words, the free ride is over.

For computer users willing to go on through the auto shutdown process for a few months, the Windows 7 RC operating system will go “Not Genuine” on June 1st.  Even that isn’t the end of the world, although you will lose some of your personalization, like wallpaper, and a This copy of Windows is not genuine will be displayed in the corner of your screen. More importantly, however, the not-genuine version of Windows will start getting locked out of important updates and new features, so if you don’t feel like paying, go find a RTM version or OEM version out on some torrent site. (You pirate scum!)

You have been warned…

Have a nice day.

Windows 7 Release Candidate Expiration Coming Soon is a post from Best Hubris. All content exclusively written by Freelance Writing Business of ArcticLlama, LLC

In order to make that happen, Microsoft is pushing out a Release Candidate, often referred to by the initials RC, at the end of April or beginning of May, depending on whether or not you are a MSDN subscriber.

I still think that improving Vista and releasing a Version 2.0 was the better strategic route, but Microsoft no doubt hopes to put the bad taste left in people’s mouth by Vista behind it and move forward with the shiny unsullied Windows brand name.  Will that move pay off?

The answer depends on how Windows 7.0 performs.  As predicted, out of the gate, Windows 7.0 is getting the kid gloves treatment from legions of technical reporters and online resources like bloggers and tech sites.  For these pundits, comparisons to Vista need to be favorable in order to maintain the notion that Vista was severely flawed, and perhaps even not ready when it was released.  By praising Windows 7.0 they can all say, “See, we told you.  This is what Vista should have been in the first place,” which of course is hogwash considering the monumental leaps in technology and hardware made since the release of Vista which are incorporated within Windows 7.0.

However, the honeymoon will be short lived if average users and businesses can’t find a compelling reason to voluntarily upgrade to 7.0.  If the only reason to move to the new OS is the ending support for Windows XP, Microsoft can expect a slow simmering backlash to grow without the help of the blogosphere.  However, eventually, the criticism will start flowing again, and this time, there is no bailout strategy.

After pouring all of its resources into the super-fast launch of Windows 7.0, Microsoft’s bag of tricks will be empty with Windows 8.0 or whatever a least a couple of years away.  The difference this time is that Windows XP will not be there to prop the company up while it fumbles about for a new strategy.  The reviled Vista plus a blundered Windows 7.0 would be the worst possible outcome for the boys at Redmond.

Let’s hope it doesn’t come to that.

Windows 7.0 Release Candidate Coming – Already Out On Torrents is a post from Best Hubris. All content exclusively written by Freelance Writing Business of ArcticLlama, LLC

For all of the juicy details on how I got here, read Part 1 – Troubleshooting Wireless Home Network Random Disconnect.

The answer finally came in, of all places, a Facebook forum.  Turns out the real administrators from Facebook actually help out their users by really trying to understand their problems.  After all, people might just decide to stop using Facebook before they decide to buy a new router.

I don’t remember the question or the exact answer, and I can’t seem to find it anymore, but it came down to this.  If you are running Windows (any kind of Windows) in a small home wireless network you might have this connection dropping issue.  Why?

Every so often, your Windows computer will for whatever reason want a browse list.  The browse list is nothing more than a way to find computers on a network by name.  It is woefully outdated and nobody with a serious network uses it (quite frankly, they probably block it at every router).  But, it works great for the small home network because it takes no setup.

The way it works is that whenever you turn on a computer, once it gets on the network it sends a broadcast out onto the network asking for the browse list.  Normal network traffic has a destination.  But in order to have a destination, you need to know where the other computers are.  A broadcast solves this Catch-22 by being sent to everybody.  Think of a five-year old in a crowded room looking for their mother, “Mom?  Mom?  Mom?”  Everyone in the room can hear him calling out for his mother even though the message is not meant for them.  A broadcast works the same way.

Now, in order for this to work, there has to be just one list that gets updated, otherwise there might be discrepancies between the lists.  To achieve this goal, the computers hold a Browser Election.  Basically, if a computer want to have the master list, it has to be the master browser.  There is an algorithm on how this election gets one, but the important thing is that it all happens by broadcasts.

Ok, here comes the glitch.  If you have a small area wireless network, then it is possible that all of the computers will receive the broadcast at the same time, and they will all respond at the same time.  This has a technical term, I don’t know it.  When this happens, the wireless router won’t hear everyone properly.  (Think about five kids shouting for mom).  The router will either respond incorrectly, or not at all to one or more of the computers.  This computer will wait for the proper response before it sends any more network traffic.  This is why the connection does not show up in the icon as disconnected.  It isn’t really.  It is just that it will wait literally forever before it sends any other traffic for that proper response.  Since the router thinks it already responded (or didn’t know it needed to respond), no signal will ever be sent, and BOOM, your connection is dropped.

If you have a big house, the difference in signal between your master bedroom and the kitchen is probably enough to keep this from happening.  But, I live in a bungalow style house and my wife and I often share the same room, so the distance from router to computer isn’t far and the computers are even closer together than that.  I’m sure there is a ratio of some sort here where if you are too close or too far you’ll never have a problem which is why no one ever believes the people who do have the issue.

Advanced Router Settings

There is a fix!  First off, if you do have Intel 2200BG wireless adapters you do need to get new drivers if you still have the original ones.  The way you can tell if you need new drivers is if they allow you to chose WPA-2 with AES or not.  If they only allow you to choose WEP or WPA with TKIP, they are too old.  Otherwise, if all your equipment allows for WPA-2 with AES, then you should be ready.

Log into your wireless router and look for the advanced settings.  It might be called something different, but basically you are looking for where you get to put numbers into certain parameters, not where you get to put your password or SSID or anything like that.

You may not have all these settings.  That might be a problem, and it might not.  Change what you can and see if it helps.

Most wireless routers come pre-configured by default with their ideal settings for a perfect environment.  And why not?  Always hope for the best.  If your wireless network keeps dropping then you are looking to tweak some of these settings.  Yes, they will technically slow down your wireless network, but I will bet you that you only rarely consume your full bandwidth anyway, especially if you mainly use your wireless to share an Internet connection and a printer or two.  (Your Internet connection is way slower than your wireless.  My Comcast Internet with one step upgrade is something like 7 Mb/sec.  The wireless goes at 54 Mb/sec so even if I lost 3 Mb/sec off the wireless I’d still be fine.)  Besides, what is worse, a connection that keeps dropping or one that is a teeny tiny bit slower?

The settings you want to tweak are the fragmentation threshold and the RTS number (they might be called something slightly different, but you should be able to tell them.)  The fragmentation usually comes set at 2346.  Drop it to 2306.  The RTS usually comes at 2347.  Drop it to 2304.  If it works, then here is your virtual high-five.

If not, then lower the Beacon (usually set at 100) to 50.

Still doesn’t work.   Go to your computers and look at the card’s configuration.  If it lets you choose between RTS and CTS, choose RTS.  Otherwise, the RTS changes at the router will just be ignored.

If you still don’t have it, make sure that you actually have the same issue.  Here is a summary of the symptoms:

• All computers can and do connect to the wireless when first started.
• When the connection drops it is seemingly random, that is it doesn’t always drop when you do a specific thing.
• It isn’t just the one computer that drops.  If you have this problem, then all of your computers should be just as likely to drop as another one.
• You don’t have other errors in Event Viewer (except for browser, live update, automatic update, etc…)

If so, then try adjusting the settings down a little bit at a time.  These numbers make big changes for small values, so start with something like 10 less for the fragmentation and the RTS and something like 2 or 3 less for the beacon.  Also, always keep the RTS exactly two lower than the fragmentation.  If you get down to 1800 or something, you are barking up the wrong tree.  Sorry.

Good luck.  I hope this helps.

UPDATE 02/2009:  It appears that our friends at Linksys are better at wireless networking that our no longer friends at Trendnet.  After installing a new Linksys wireless router with a feature we needed, this problem disappeared despite not reconfiguring the router to behave as above.  Your mileage may vary, but based on this experience, if you don’t want to mess with the configurations detailed here, you might just want to watch for a good deal on a Linksys Wireless router instead.

Windows Randomly Disconnects from Wireless Network Solution is a post from Best Hubris. All content exclusively written by Freelance Writing Business of ArcticLlama, LLC

Things You Should Know #1 Automatic Windows Updates

• In Windows, you can set you computer to automatically download updates from Microsoft.  This is a good idea.  You can also configure those downloads to happen, every day, every week, every month, whatever.  Nobody every really gives you any real guidance as to what that setting should be.  But, there is a single fact that makes the setting you should use obvious.
• Microsoft sends out its “non-emergency” patches (which is every single one except for maybe two or three times per year) on what has euphemistically become known as Patch Tuesday.
• So, it is just common sense to set your auto-update to run every Tuesday.  That way you get all the patches right away and you don’t waste time or bandwidth checking on all those other days and times when there is a 90+% chance that there won’t be an update.

To set your automatic Windows update settings in Windows XP, go to Control Panel –> Security Center –> Automatic Updates.  Set it for Every Tuesday at 2:00 PM or something else in the afternoon.  You’ll never miss an important update and you won’t waste any time or bandwidth either.

Things You Should Know #1 is a post from Best Hubris. All content exclusively written by Freelance Writing Business of ArcticLlama, LLC

However, I think the question they have to get right at Microsoft is when SHOULD we ship Windows 7.  Right now, I think it looks like Steve Ballmer and the boys have thrown in the towel on Vista and they hope that a super-hyped release of Windows 7 will make the whole Vista thing go away like that season on Dallas where they decided it was all just a (bad) dream.  Unfortunately, for Microsoft, this is real life, not a soap opera.

Rushing Windows 7 to market in 2009, or even early 2010, will be met with just as many bugs, incompatibilities, and user frustration as the launch of Vista.  Only this time, it will be two in a row, and that, at least in some people’s minds, marks a trend.  If Microsoft gets caught up in a media wave that calls into question its ability to launch operating systems, it will have a longer, harder time digging out than they already have ahead of them for Vista.

What should the Windows 7 ship date be?  2011 or 2012.  Not because it won’t be ready, but because that is how long it would take to fix Vista and get it redeemed in the public’s eyes.  Then, you ship Windows 7.  Shipping Windows 7 before then admits that Vista was a failure, not, as Microsoft contents, an overblown reporting of a few glitches and the too loud moaning of a few malcontents.

The best strategy for Microsoft is to ship Vista 1.5 (and get it right this time) in late 2009, or maybe early 2010 (late 2009 is better).  Then, showcase the heck out of it for two or three months, and then let it ride.  A year or two later, when everyone with a new computer runs Vista just because that is what non-Apple people do (like XP today), THEN it is time to start thinking about shipping Windows 7.

Otherwise, Windows 7 might just also be known as Flop 2.0.

When SHOULD Windows 7 Ship? is a post from Best Hubris. All content exclusively written by Freelance Writing Business of ArcticLlama, LLC