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#21
Autoruns will tell you everything that starts automatically (but you can subset by drivers, log-on items etc by picking the relevant tab).
As safe mode works the most obvious thing to do would be to go to Everything tab and then on the Options tab tick Hide Microsoft Entries
You can then disable everything remaining (untick them in the LHS column) and see if normal boot works.
If that works, enable them one by one (or if you have lots, in batches)
For example enable things with names beginning A --> M leaving N --Z disabled and repeat until you find the problematic one. It should not take too many iterations to find the culprit.
I know - thank you. I printed it out. I thought that, maybe, there might be another tutorial on how to use it - but I'll make out just fine with the link you sent. Thanks again!!!
THANKS, STEVE. I BELIEVE THE ITEMS RUNNING AT STARTUP ARE THE ONES HIGHLIGHTED IN PINK?
I ALSO HAVE LIGHT BLUE AND YELLOW LINE ITEMS. ARE THE MEANINGS OF THE COLORS IN THE HELP FILES? I LOOKED BUT MUST HAVE MISSED THAT INFORMATION.
I'M LEARNING A LOT FROM YOU FOLKS AND APPRECIATE IT. IT'S A PRIMARY REASON I'M NOT YET READY TO THROW IN THE TOWEL AND DO A CLEAN INSTALL. I'M RETIRED SO I HAVE SOME TIME.
BTW, THE TYPE OF SEARCH YOU'RE REFERRING TO, I.E. A-M, N-Z, IS CALLED A "BINARY SEARCH." FOR INSTANCE, IF THE PROBLEM IS IN A-M (AND NOT N-Z), YOU JUST SPLIT A-M IN HALF AND DO THE SAME THING. IT SURE BEATS GOING ONE BY ONE! IT'S VERY EFFICIENT AS I'M SURE YOU KNOW.
I WON'T SHUT OFF ANYTHING I'M NOT SURE ABOUT UNLESS I CHECK WITH YOU FOLKS - IF THAT'S OK WITH YOU.
THANKS FOR THE SCREENSHOTS ABOVE!
Last edited by Nisko; 27 Jul 2017 at 17:02.
Steve, I edited the post you sent to me with the screenshots - by adding more content - but, by editing, I don't know if you got notified. I found the answer to my question about the highlighting - but there's more.
Pink/Red: Indicates no publisher information was found, or if Verify code signatures" is enabled under Options > Filter Options, means that the digital signature either doesn’t exist or doesn’t match (not verified, unsigned), or there is no publisher information.
Green: Indicates changed entries and is used when comparing (from the File menu) against a previous set of Autoruns data to indicate an item that wasn’t there last time.
Yellow: Indicates "File not found" in the expected location (Image Path). Meaning the startup entry is there, but the file or job it points to doesn’t exist anymore. This coding is not always reliable if the full path is not in Windows Registry entry and even then you should check any subkeys. In most cases these entries are harmless leftovers (remnants) from uninstalled applications...many program uninstallers do not perform an adequate job of completely removing them.
Blue: Indicates the location where the group of entries is found...usually a Registry key.
Autorun - General Security
For the sake of this task (disabling/enabling them to find any problem one) you can ignore the colors.
I would leave the Microsoft entries alone. You do have many start up items most of which I'm unfamiliar with. I did notice various Dell start up items from their 'Bloatware'. I removed all Dell programs except Quickset for the keyboard control functions it provides. I think you need to go through all your installed programs and uninstall programs you really don't need.