That is where many nasty startup programs plant their seeds to grow into a big strong nasty piece of  malware. But nowadays there are lots of places to hide files that need to start up automatically. They can live not only in your start up folder but also in the registry, services, hidden explorer replacements, Ini files or bat files.

Autostart Explorer is my go-to application for tracking down troubles with certain startup programs. You can also use a program like this to find out why you are getting errors from some program you have never heard of during start up. AutoStart Explorer is portable and requires no installation which makes it even better for troubled systems analysis. The best part of all is that it does not change anything – you need to make changes manually – this is just a tool to see exactly what is happening with your system at startup.

After the 228KB download completed I extracted its four files to my memory stick. I created a new folder called AS. Then I ran the executable file out of the batch called AutostartExplorer.exe. Then I was greeted with this screen:

By clicking on any of the items on the left hand side, you will see all the startup programs that auto start using this method on the right top pane. Below that will be a description of where the item is coming from and how it works. This really helps you to understand Windows a little bit better. Consider it a brief glimpse into the underbelly that is Windows’ many start up hiding spaces.

You can also right-click on any item and show its real properties. This will fill you in on if the startup program is what it says it is and let you locate and run it manually (or delete it!) if need be. You will not shoot yourself in the foot with this program as it does not remove anything – it is strictly for analysis purposes.

I chose to grab the properties of DsClock and as you can see it shows you its normal system properties including its location, and created on date. So if you started having problems at September 22 at 4:18pm you’ll know that this is your cause.

You can use the buttons in the menu bar to expand or collapse all of the items in the list. For such a small program it really helps when repairing a system. This lives on all my memory sticks. I learned a lot from this application such as how applications start on network connections or how your Explorer.exe can be replaced by another process.

How do you diagnose startup issues? Do you use another free program? We would love to hear about it in the comments!

AutoStart Explorer

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• WinHack – Speed Up Your Windows XP Computer (Part 1) (21)
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StartUp Manager can be used to achieve this easily. You can install StartUp Manager by using your distribution’s package manager. Or check here. Once installed, it can be found under

System > Administration > StartUp Manager.

StartUp Manager can be used to easily customize a number of options that would otherwise require you to get your hands dirty by editing configuration files. As a start, you can change boot options such as the selection timeout and default operating system. If you have multiple operating systems, a useful option here is to make the Last Used operating system as the default choice, which would automatically boot the one you used the last time. Such a setting can be quite handy when you have a clear favorite in terms of operating systems and others are just installed for completeness.

You can also change the display resolution and the color depth if you are experiencing any problems with the display of the main menu. Uncheck “Show bootloader menu” if you don’t want to see the menu, and boot the default operating system each time. “Show bootsplash” can be used to add an image as background to the bootloader menu. We did a complete tutorial on it some time back. “Show text during boot” provides you with textual feedback of what is currently happening in the boot process.

The appearance tab allows you to customize the look of the bootloader menu as well as the Usplash theme. You can add colors to the bootloader menu, pick and choose the ones you like. A Usplash theme governs the progress bar display during the boot process. You can find some Usplash themes here, click on “Manage Usplash themes” and add the one you downloaded, then select the one you like and next time you boot, it would be there to greet you.

That is not all by any stretch of imagination. StartUp Manager allows you to do pretty advanced stuff. You can password-protect the bootloader or only recovery mode entries (a good choice) or the boot options by simply placing a check against the option and specifying the password.

If you are bothered by how cluttered the bootloader gets after a kernel upgrade, you can limit the number of entries from here in. Uncheck “Create boot option for recovery mode” to remove the recovery mode altogether if you are paranoid about someone getting into your system through recovery mode root prompt.

StartUp Manager is a no fuss tool which greatly simplifies tweaking and customizing of bootloader options and helps you manage Grub and Usplash settings easily without having to go in and tinker with the configuration files yourself. What do you think of it? Let us know in the comments.

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• How To Password Protect GRUB Entries (Linux) (11)
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• WinHack – Speed Up Your Windows XP Computer (Part 1) (21)

Three years down the road, even though the Ubuntu team has made changes and improvements to the usplash screen, it is still nowhere close to beautiful. Luckily, a good thing about Linux (and Ubuntu) is that it is fully customizable and you can tweak every single part to your liking. That is to say, even though the default does not come with a beautiful usplash screen, you can still change ubuntu usplash screen to display your favorite image.

Follow the guide below and you’ll be able to change Ubuntu splash screen in no time.

In Ubuntu Intrepid, there is a bug that prevents you from setting your own usplash screen. To overcome this, we will remove the default usplash and install splashy.

Removing the usplash

Open up a terminal (Applications -> Accessories -> Terminal) and type the following command to remove the default usplash.

sudo apt-get autoremove usplash

Installing splashy

Download the deb files for your machine:

32-bit: libsplashy1_0.3.10-1_i386.deb, splashy_0.3.10-1_i386.deb

64-bit: libsplashy1-dev_0.3.13-3ubuntu1_amd64.deb, libsplashy1_0.3.13-3ubuntu1_amd64.deb, splashy_0.3.13-3ubuntu1_amd64.deb

Double click the packages to install splashy in your machine.

Back to the terminal,

sudo apt-get install splashy-themes

Download your favorite splashy theme

There are several places where you can find and download beautiful splashy themes. Here are some of them for your references.

• In the /usr/share/splashy/themes folder.
• Gnome-look (Search for ’splashy’ in the search bar)
• Splashy theme page
• KDE-look

Once you have found your favorite theme, download it to your desktop. The file should be in tar.gz format.

(If you are looking to create your own splash themes, here is the full tutorial)

To install the file, type the following command in the terminal.

sudo splashy_config –i /path-to-the-file.tar.gz
sudo splashy_config -s name-of-the-file
sudo update-initramfs -u

To illustrate, assuming that I have downloaded a theme with the name custom-usplash.tar.gz onto my desktop. In my terminal, this is what I type:

sudo splashy_config -i ~/Desktop/custom-usplash.tar.gz
sudo splashy_config -s custom-usplash
sudo update-initramfs -u

It is important to type the command manually. Do not copy from here. WordPress displays the ‘-’ sign differently from the terminal. You might get errors if you copy/paste the command directly from here.

Configuring the kernel entry

In your terminal, type the following command to open the grub menu file

gksu gedit /boot/grub/menu.lst

Scroll down till you find the line

kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.27-7-generic root=UUID=82ace599-c240-456a-8df9-96b0b477d00b ro  single

Append the phrase ‘vga=791′ (without the quote) to the end of the line (refer to the image below). Save and close the file.

That’s it. Restart your computer. You should see your favorite usplash in action.

Here are some of the splashy theme screenshots (taken from gnome-look):

Aqua for splashy

Simple bluish for splashy

Ubuntu Glass

Uninstallation

To uninstall splashy and to return the usplash screen to the original setting, type the following in the terminal.

sudo apt-get autoremove splashy splashy-themes
sudo apt-get install usplash

Your usplash screen should now return to the default setting.

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• Easy GUI Management of Grub and Usplash Settings with Startup Manager [Linux] (1)
• WinHack – Speed Up Your Windows XP Computer (Part 1) (21)
• Ubuntu System Panel Gives Quick Access To Your Applications (20)
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• The Ubuntu Upgrade Guide (8)

Well, ready to get started? Let’s do it.

Messing around with the actual login can be quite fun as well. Actually, if that does not pump you up enough, what if I told you it was easy? Yes, well, it is! Here are a few cool things you can do with the registry to make your login screen a little more personal:

Add A Login Text Reminder

This little reminder will pop-up everytime you start the computer, right before the login screen boots. You can edit it to say whatever you like.

1. Go to “Start,” “Run,” and type regedit.ext.

2. When the Registry Editor loads, navigate to
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE \ SOFTWARE \ Microsoft \ Windows NT \ Current Version \ Winlogon

3. You should now see a multitude of registry keys that are essential for the logon. To do what we are trying to do, add a text reminder, find the registry key LegalNoticeCaption and right-click, and select Modify.

4. Now, type whatever you like in the box to set a caption/title for the window.

5. For the actual text you would like to display, find the Registry Key right under it titled LegalNoticeText and again right-click it, then select Modify. Type whatever you like in the box.

Set Default Logon Identity

Also conveniently placed in the Winlogon directory is the Registry Key titled AutoAdminLogin, DefaultDomainName, and DefaultUserName. These keys set the default login credentials for the system when the login is loaded. If you simply want to save time by automatically setting the correct username and password everytime, and this computer is not used by a bunch of people then it is fine.

If the computer you are tweaking happens to be used by many people then I would not recommend using this tweak, unless, of course, you are intending on everyone using the same account. Anyway here it is:

1. Go to “Start,” “Run,” and type regedit.exe.

2. When the Registry Editor loads, navigate to
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE \ SOFTWARE \ Microsoft \ Windows NT \ Current Version \ Winlogon

3. The AutoAdminLogin key should be set to 0 currently if your system does not automatically log you on. If the system does, though, automatically log you on, then this should be set to 1.

4. The DefaultDomainName key is the default user directory the username is selected to do. Usually, this will not need to be changed, unless you are logging onto a server.

5. The DefaultUserName key, obviously, sets the default username. You can change this to whatever you wish to accompany your username.

Change the Logon Screensaver

Changing the logon screensaver may be the best part. The ability to show your friends your ultra-cool hacking tweaking skills and superior computer modding. Anyway, here is an easy way using some cool software. (Note: The installation is quite easy and shouldn’t need much explanation.)

1. Download BootSkin.

2. Find and download new or used current “BootSkins” provided after installation to change your boot screen. (To download and access new “BootSkins” you can go to WinCustomize.)

Hope these small tweaks help you get a little closer to the perfect computer. Have fun tweaking!

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• How To Get Aero Shake, Aero Peek & Aero Snap Features In Vista & XP (12)
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But today, I will show you how to speed up that computer of yours and make it like new! So here are just a few methods:

Disable Unnecessary Windows Services

Windows comes with a bunch of services, or processes, in the background that help the operating system run and do the daily functions a computer does – except some of these are unnecessary. You really do not need to have all of the Microsoft services running in the background at one time – many of which don’t ever need to run at all.

Of course, many windows services are necessary so you need to be very careful what you disable. But if you disable the correct ones you may just be that much closer to a much faster computer.

To disable Windows services:

1. Go to “Start,” “Run,” and type services.msc
2. You may now disable any of the following services based on your use – or non-use – of them:

(1) Task Scheduler – Used to schedule unattended tasks. If you do not need this you can turn it off.

(2) Automatic Updates – Automatically checks for updates from Microsoft. You can just do so manually by going here.

(3) Smart Card – If you do not use Smart Cards, you can stop it.

(4) Error Reporting Service – This is the thing that pops up everytime a program crashes asking if you want to report what happened to Microsoft. If you always decide not to, then you can disable this one.

(5) Telnet – Used to allow users to connect to your desktop remotely. If you do not need to access your computer remotely, you can disable this.

(6) Remote Registry Service – You really do not need this one. It allows you to remotely edit your registry. Most people definitely do not need this.

(7) Clipbook – Allows you to remotely copy/paste on a private network. It is unlikely many people will use this.

(8) Alerter – This one is completely useless. SP2 automatically disables it for you.

(9) Wireless Zero Configuration – This is necessary if you use Wi-Fi. If not, you can disable this.

(10) Uninterruptible Power Supply – This is unnecessary if, of course, you do not have an uninterruptible power supply.

(11) Windows Messenger – This service can be falsely used for spam. I highly recommend removing it. (Note: It is not related to the IM client.)

Stop Programs From Running in Startup

Part of downloading all of that freeware and even just installing work-related applications, a likely part of the installation process, is the unfortunate automatic setting of starting the application on startup. Gradually, your computer takes forever to startup and eventually it becomes ridiculously slow. You could use an application like StartupDelayer to delay programs from starting up (also check out AutoRuns by Karl and WinPatrol by Mark), but many of those applications do not even need to be running at all.

So here is one way to stop those unnecessary applications from running:

1. Go to “Start,” “Run,” and type msconfig.
2. Click on the “Startup” tab.

You should now see a list of all of the programs that automatically start up. Many of these applications are nicely labeled with the correct names, but some are not. If they are not clearly labeled you can just check the path of the file and hopefully find the name of the program, but if not it is probably better to just not remove it.

When you are disabling services make sure not to disable any of the Microsoft Services. Many of the ones that you see on the startup are necessary. Once you have selected the services you do not need, simply click “Apply.”

Hope this helps some of you to get started on speeding up that computer of yours. Stay tuned for the next installment of WinHack!

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• WinHack – Speed Up Your Windows Computer (Part 2) (14)
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To avoid these embarrassing moments, I would normally have to predict where I will be the next time I boot up my Mac. If I’m heading to the library then I’d mute my Mac before shutting it down so that when I switch it on again, it wouldn’t chime. Unfortunately, I don’t always remember to do this and I still get “chimed” when I least expect it… and stared at.

So, how to disable Mac’s startup sound

Psst is a very simple application which allows you to adjust the system volume every time it starts up so that you won’t have to endure the wrath of the Chime. In all seriousness, Psst will save you from countless moments of embarrassment.

After launching Psst for the first time, it will prompt you to adjust the system volume you want your Mac to be set at during every start-up. Slide the indicator all the way to the left to completely mute the system volume and click “Start Psst”. After that, you may quit the application. Psst runs a daemon in the background with close to no CPU usage.

Then you’ll just forget about it, like how I did. Psst runs smoothly on my Mac, changing the system volume right before it shuts down. I hardly remember that it’s running but it is something that I couldn’t do without.

However, do take note that Psst does not run on every model. The developer is currently compiling a compatibility database of which models work with Psst. So if you’re up for a little contribution, give Psst a try. If it runs on your system and eliminates the chime, then let the developer know about it.

Psst is available for free from Satsumac.com

Psst works on my setup, which is a MacBook 2.4GHz Intel Core 2 Duo running OS X 10.5.5.

Lastly, here’s a little fun example of the Mac chime. Enjoy!

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I shared with you my favorite application for tweaking the Windows Registry (safely) with WinSecret and how to use SteadyState to keep your machine the way you like it even after letting others mess around on it. Now how about we look into what your machine does when it starts up?

AutoRuns a SysInternals tool that has been converted into a Microsoft Windows utility is a much more powerful alternative to Microsoft’s built-in MSConfig tool (seen below). Both of these tools shows you what starts up with Windows and allows you to change it. AutoRuns just has a lot more options to help you out than its Microsoft predecessor.

We all know that when our Windows machine starts up it loads a bunch of programs so you can use them throughout your session. But did you know as more programs are loaded into your system’s memory the slower your machine is going to become? Some stuff is necessary but others are not. Services, applications and all sorts of crap can be starting up and using your resources even though they are never used.

There are tons of Windows services and third party applications that decide to force Windows into starting them before your system is fully up. This leads to slow start up times and seeing your system drag its feet like it had a few shots.

Why shouldn’t we be in control of what our machine starts up and when?

Of course we should! It is our computer after all! You could go to your start menu and click run and type MSCONFIG… But if you are not into computers and their inner workings this window can be confusing to you. There is no breakdown of what an application or service does as you can see below. You are just given raw data and the option to enable/disable each item or all of them in a clip.

But with AutoRuns check out all your options:

The check box means it is enabled and as you can see above Autoruns shows you the name and location of each image. For start up files it always shows you the full path to the executable; for Registry entries you get the exact key location. Autoruns also populates the name of the software publisher and whatever brief description it has stored.

Double-clicking on any of these entries takes you to the appropriate place to check it out. A file will take you to its directory or a Registry key will take you to ‘regedit’ with the appropriate key opened.

Your right-click options opens a context menu with more choices including the ability to search Google, get a digital signature or launch Process Explorer (separate download). That digital signature option is neat because it can hide all MS signed applications as well as verify that any third party executable is what it says it is.

Here are just a few of the startup categories Autoruns covers:

• Logon includes the user and all users’ startup folders and the Run keys that are found in the Registry.
• Explorer includes a list of Explorer shell extensions, toolbars, and active setup executions.
• Internet Explorer includes Browser Helper Objects and Internet Explorer toolbars and extensions.
• LSA Providers includes Local Security Authority authentication, notification, and security packages.
• In Autoruns, you can permanently delete a startup item or just disable it. An online search option helps you find which items you can safely disable. This option runs an internet search for webpages that describe an item or its category and advises you whether to remove it from startup. When you disable an item, Autoruns moves it to a backup location in the Registry or on the hard drive.

Some other awesome features are being able to compare one start up profile with another and identify discrepancies. You can export all your entries as a Text or CSV file for backup or troubleshooting.

There is a WHOLE LOT of information contained withing this small 490KB application. I won’t go over the stuff you can do to shoot yourself in the foot like disabling drivers, services or even applications that your system needs to function so don’t just go messing around arbitrarily. This is a tool to help you get a better grip on controlling your Windows Machine… It is YOUR machine after all!

Do you use a start-up manager? If so let us know in the comments! What do you stop/remove?

(By) Karl L. Gechlik is a superhero of the IT industry who wears many hats and changes in telephone booths. Karl mostly uses his powers for good and the occasional hysterical prank. Get your geek on & follow his geeky antics at askTheAdmin.com today.

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• WinHack – Speed Up Your Windows XP Computer (Part 1) (21)
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WinPatrol

Winpatrol is a very robust and impressive program and I love it. Its main appeal lies in taming your start-up menu but it also has other features which I will also get into later.

When you install a program on your computer, more than likely it will try to wriggle its way into the start-up menu. By “start-up menu”, I mean the programs which automatically load when you switch on your computer and Windows starts loading. If you have too many programs loading at start-up then it will take forever for your computer to fully boot up. Now with a lot of programs, there is normally an option in the program settings to disable the program loading at start-up, but if you have a program without such an option then WinPatrol can disable it for you.

Note however that this does not disable the program from working altogether – it only disables a program from starting up when Windows loads.

All you have to do is find the program in the “start-up programs” tab, highlight it, click the “disable” button and it is instantly disabled. To enable it again, just highlight the program and click “enable”. Easy, nothing to it.

WinPatrol also analyses your system to show you your currently active tasks, what file associations you have, what cookies you have, scheduled tasks and hidden files. You can then use WinPatrol to delete them, disable them or change them. Everything is reversible later.

But the best part of all is that WinPatrol runs silently in the background and if a program later tries to covertly install something on your computer, WinPatrol instantly lets you know with a pop-up window on your screen and it gives you the option to either allow the program or kill it.

I use the free version of WinPatrol but there is also a Plus version for $30. As yet, I haven’t felt the need to upgrade as the free version does everything I need it to do.

So if it takes forever for your computer to boot up, give WinPatrol a go, disable unneeded programs from start-up, and then watch a dramatic decrease in computer booting up time.

Auslogics Disk Defrag

Defragmenting your hard-drive is an essential part of keeping your computer running smoothly but the Windows defrag tool makes the job last for hours (I have to run it overnight when I am in bed) and you can’t do anything else with your computer while it is running. There is however a tool called Auslogics Disk Defrag which partly defragments your files, does it quickly and you can continue to use your computer while it is running.

Notice how I said “partly defragments”. Auslogics doesn’t do a complete job and this is NOT a replacement for the Windows defrag tool. This merely keeps on top of the defrag problem, keeps your files in generally good shape and when you finally do run the Windows defrag tool, you’ll notice that the job will go much faster because Auslogics Disk Defrag did some of the work already.

Just install and run, and then minimise to the status bar. Leave it to do its job and eventually it will be finished. The second time I used it, I then ran the Windows defrag tool immediately afterwards, and the defrag task was cut short by a little over 2 hours presumably because Auslogics already took care of some of it.

(By) Mark O’Neill is a freelance writer, editor and blogger. Visit his blog at BetterThanTherapy.net

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• WinHack – Speed Up Your Windows XP Computer (Part 1) (21)
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