Changing the order of startup programs?

chuckles1066

Is it possible to specify in which order Windows XP loads programs on startup?

I'm using a wireless connection and I have AVG Free which loads on startup but it attempts to check for updates from the Grisoft server before my Intel Pro Wireless driver has initiated a connection.

Hence, it never updates and, after about a week, tells me my virus database is out of date!

If I could make AVG load last of all, the wireless connection would be up and running and there'd be no problem.

Any advice?

intel

Just Right click AVG Icon then Launch AVG Control Centre, Then have a look in Update Manager.

http://netsquirrel.com/msconfig/

John_Gray

It seems to me that Intel left out some of his reply!

I would have said that you are approaching the problem from the wrong angle -- you should be trying to get AVG to perform its automatic update via the Scheduler's "Update plan in Basic Mode" task (if you have it shown). Double-click on it and you will get a windows with Scheduled download time - click on the tick-box for "Periodically check for Internet updates" and pick a two-hour timeslot when your PC is likely to be on. Also tick the box "If Internet connection is not available, check when it goes online". Then you can forget about updates, presuming it all works.

There is no absolute (Microsoft) way of altering the order in which processes are started. If you look at the appearance of the corresponding icons in the System Tray (bottom right) after you log on, the order seems to vary somewhat from one startup to the other. Microsoft has a way of serialising services, when one depends on another being started first, but the start order for programs doesn't usually matter. On the box on which I have Norton Internet Scurity, the Microsoft Security Centre has started complaining that Norton Antivirus isn't working -- but it just takes another 5-10 seconds longer to start than Microsoft thinks it should! If you really want to try to control the startup order (in my view, a tweak too far...) see whether RegRun Start Control (for example) actually works...

John

PS There's a lengthy Microsoft article Troubleshooting the Startup Process if you really want to go deeply into this...!

Toxteth_OGrady

Don't know if this would work 'cos I don't use AVG but a simpler way may be to deselect AVG (and/or its autoupdater) using msconfig or a 3rd party startup manager and then just place a shortcut to the program exe in the user's windows Startup folder.

:cool:

TOG

John_Gray

That might be a bit later than the OP wanted! See this startup order:
1. BootExecute
HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Session Manager\BootExecute
2. Services

3. User enters a password and logs on to the system

4. UserInit
HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon\UserInit
5. Shell
HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon\Shell
6. All Users-RunOnce
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\RunOnce
7. All Users-Run
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run
8. All Users-RunOnceEx
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\RunOnceEx
9. All Users-RunEx
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\RunEx
10. Current User-RunOnce
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\RunOnce
11. Current User-Run
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run
12. Current User-RunOnceEx
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\RunOnceEx
13. Current User-RunEx
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\RunEx
14. Common Startup Folder
15. Startup Folder

and also
Order of Startup Programs

John

DonnyDave

John_Gray wrote:

...you should be trying to get AVG to perform its automatic update via the Scheduler's "Update plan in Basic Mode" task (if you have it shown). Double-click on it and you will get a windows with Scheduled download time - click on the tick-box for "Periodically check for Internet updates" and pick a two-hour timeslot when your PC is likely to be on.

On a similar vein, is there a way of starting programs when you connect to the internet in Windows XP? I'm using Windows 98 and I use NetLaunch to start up programs when I connect to the internet.

NetLaunch sits in the background, then when I connect it runs specified programs in a sequence. It even allows for time delays so that everything doesn't start at once.

Programs that NetLaunch starts are: Windows Critical Update Notification, Norton Internet Security Auto-update, Outlook Express and a program to keep my clock running right.

This gets round the need to use the task schedular to 'run' these programs every so often.

Toxteth_OGrady

John_Gray wrote:

That might be a bit later than the OP wanted!

Not sure why putting AVG in the Current User Startup folder would make it too late? That's what he's trying to get it to do. I was working on the worst case assumption that his wifi startup is a Current User Run DLL, i.e. number 11 in your list along with trying to come up with a solution that doesn't need a registry edit. I suspect it won't work anyway because most AVs load with the kernel and don't appear as a start item in the registry but that may not apply to the autoupdater. Don't know for AVG whether that has its own exe that could be put in the Startup folder or Current User Run in the registry.

:cool:

TOG

intel

John_Gray wrote:

It seems to me that Intel left out some of his reply!

Hi John

What bit would that be.. was a bit rushed