Startup programs

Is it possible to determine the order in which startup programs load when XP is starting? The reason I'm asking is because I'm using the FreeRamXP utitlity and have it configured to optimize ram upon startup. My virus software loads after the ram utility thus possibly negating some of the optimization benefits. I'd like for my ram utility to be the last thing that's loaded. Thanks in advance.

 

This is a good question. I have never considered the possibility of modifying the startup order of programs. You have so many places to consider. However, I believe programs in the startup folder get executed last.

Good luck.

 

you can try
hclm/software/microsoft/windows/current version/run

change the order there, see if that works

 

Check out Boot Log Analyser (Analyzer?). Different spellings.

http://www.google.com/search?as_q=&num=20&hl=en&ie=ISO-8859-1&btnG=Google+Search&as_epq=boot+log+analyser&as_oq=&as_eq=&lr=lang_en&as_ft=i&as_filetype=&as_qdr=all&as_occt=any&as_dt=i&as_sitesearch=&safe=images

is a google link for Analyser.

Different versions are listed for W95/98, Linux and 2000. There may be links for XP, in either spelt versions.You will have to check them out.

I use one that works on W98SE. The amount of stuff that is activated on bootup is staggering in W98SE. Probably 3 times more in xp. Bazza

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I can't really see the point in using a RAM mangement tool in XP.

Unlike 9x, XP does a good job by itself and I doubt if you would see any improvement.

 

The reason I use a RAM management program is because I have very little ram in my computer and don't want to go and spend money for new ram. None of the suggestions have worked so far, any other ideas please? Thanks

 

Whether you have a little or a lot of RAM, RAM management programs for XP do little if anything.

In my opinion you would be better off not using them.

If you want to free up resources, then look at things like removing unused programs and redundant files, running CHKDSK and defragging, turning off unneeded serivices, limiting programs loading at startup etc.

However, regardless of what you do, there is no substitute for physical RAM. (What are your system specs?)

 

Regardless of XP RAM management capabilities and system's specs, is there a good way that I can control the order of startup programs?

 

I just told you what you can and can't do, but if you want to waste your time,

Get a copy of the freeware Batchrun, create a batch file and set a delay time for each application and whatever order you want to run.

Don't have these programs loading with Windows but have the batch file in the Startup folder and it will do the rest.

This won't achieve much but it's what you asked for.

 

All in favor of buying new RAM say "Aye".

Aye! (and the choruses ring out). Memory is cheap.

 

Ok, I took your advice and everything is working the way I intended, however, I'm still curious about this (forgive my persistence, I'm just trying to learn as much about Windows as I can). I'm assuming there's no way to control the order of startup programs by means of Windows itself or through the registry. Thanks.

 

Not that I'm aware of.

Even if you could assign an order, the smaller programs would load faster regardless of the order.