File Details |
|
| File Size | 3.3 MB |
|---|---|
| License | Shareware, $24.95 |
| Operating System | Windows 2000/9x/Server 2003/XP |
| Date Added | November 11, 2004 |
| Total Downloads | 749 |
| Publisher | Digital Widget Systems |
| Homepage | Startup Sentry |
Publisher's Description
Startup Sentry is a management tool designed to track and report on every application, service, and driver that loads automatically when Windows starts. You will always know when something new or unexpected is being launched "under the radar". Be alerted to any spy-ware, ad-ware, or Trojan Horse applications that install themselves in your system's registry. Learn about drivers that are still being loaded for hardware that you might have removed long ago. See any application "extras" that load at startup which you might not use, but are consuming precious resources. It detects startup items even if they've terminated or unloaded before this program runs.
Latest Reviews
httpd.temp reviewed v2.2 on Jan 5, 2005
Terrible... Buggy... Yeah that's the end of my review.
scodan· reviewed v2.1 on Jun 6, 2004
I guess it's hard to begin dealing with "core functionality" when you have to deal with one bug on top of another. And I do apologize, but a software review is different than a bug report. I had no intention of helping teach you how to develop a usable product. I was focusing on helping others avoid your unusable product.
dwidget reviewed v2.0 on Jan 12, 2004
LOL. No where in that review did I see anything regarding core functionality. It didn't beep loud enough or remember your sort order? Ok. Did it catch new entries to your startup areas? I'm guessing it did, or you would have lathered on additional layers of your caustic sarcasm.
Nice job. So helpful.
scodan reviewed v2.0 on Oct 27, 2003
Nice functionality, and potentially useful, but it falls quite short in many aspects. The first thing that bothered me about Startup Sentry was that the setup program wanted to replace my MSVCRT.DLL file with a much older file version. As for the utility itself, if it is running in background mode, the only alert offered is a flashing tray icon (that is, you cannot have a dialog appear, a sound play, or anything other means of notification). Startup Sentry stores its data in the registry, not data files, and you cannot have it any other way (I guess you're out of luck if you install an application, then decide to remove it and restore the registry afterward--but hey, only crazy people store data on a separate partition, right?). You cannot configure how often the background scans take place (they occur every 5 minutes, take it or leave it). The interface screams for tabs, a tree, or some other means of intelligently organizing all of the entries you will be overwhelmed with (and if you list device drivers, you can easily have hundreds of entries to sift through). The column sort order is nor remembered between runs. The "Smart columns" option is more "Stupid" than anything else, since it truncates some column data, while at the same time giving one-character indicator columns enough room to drive a truck through. If you simply close Startup Sentry while the help file is displayed, an "Access violation" error occurs. (The error is not significant, but it is annoying, and certainly does not inspire confidence.) Also, I found that merely changing one of Startup Sentry's shortcuts to run minimized was enough to induce a crash and prevent it from running at all. It took me about 5 minutes to find all of these problems, so I have no idea why developers (and other users, for that matter) never seems to find them at all. I was going to give Startup Sentry 2 points, but after re-reading all of these problems, and thinking about it, I settled on flushing it down the toilet where it belongs.
httpd.temp reviewed v2.2 on Jan 5, 2005
Terrible... Buggy... Yeah that's the end of my review.
scodan· reviewed v2.1 on Jun 6, 2004
I guess it's hard to begin dealing with "core functionality" when you have to deal with one bug on top of another. And I do apologize, but a software review is different than a bug report. I had no intention of helping teach you how to develop a usable product. I was focusing on helping others avoid your unusable product.
dwidget reviewed v2.0 on Jan 12, 2004
LOL. No where in that review did I see anything regarding core functionality. It didn't beep loud enough or remember your sort order? Ok. Did it catch new entries to your startup areas? I'm guessing it did, or you would have lathered on additional layers of your caustic sarcasm.
Nice job. So helpful.
scodan reviewed v2.0 on Oct 27, 2003
Nice functionality, and potentially useful, but it falls quite short in many aspects. The first thing that bothered me about Startup Sentry was that the setup program wanted to replace my MSVCRT.DLL file with a much older file version. As for the utility itself, if it is running in background mode, the only alert offered is a flashing tray icon (that is, you cannot have a dialog appear, a sound play, or anything other means of notification). Startup Sentry stores its data in the registry, not data files, and you cannot have it any other way (I guess you're out of luck if you install an application, then decide to remove it and restore the registry afterward--but hey, only crazy people store data on a separate partition, right?). You cannot configure how often the background scans take place (they occur every 5 minutes, take it or leave it). The interface screams for tabs, a tree, or some other means of intelligently organizing all of the entries you will be overwhelmed with (and if you list device drivers, you can easily have hundreds of entries to sift through). The column sort order is nor remembered between runs. The "Smart columns" option is more "Stupid" than anything else, since it truncates some column data, while at the same time giving one-character indicator columns enough room to drive a truck through. If you simply close Startup Sentry while the help file is displayed, an "Access violation" error occurs. (The error is not significant, but it is annoying, and certainly does not inspire confidence.) Also, I found that merely changing one of Startup Sentry's shortcuts to run minimized was enough to induce a crash and prevent it from running at all. It took me about 5 minutes to find all of these problems, so I have no idea why developers (and other users, for that matter) never seems to find them at all. I was going to give Startup Sentry 2 points, but after re-reading all of these problems, and thinking about it, I settled on flushing it down the toilet where it belongs.