Startup

Free program brings order to Windows' startup chaos

Sometimes I wonder how Microsoft gets away with it. I mean, you start your PC and every program that loads with Windows tries to be first in line for your precious processing cycles.

So that little specialty utility you use about once a month is wresting resources away from the programs that really need to start right away, such as your antivirus app. You'd think the company that makes the OS would let you set the order of your auto-start programs.

Last April, I wrote about Vista's Software Explorer, which provides more information than the System Configuration utility (… Read more

Cluttered interface doesn't affect performance

This free program's interface is a great example of how not to use tabs, because they only added to the cluttered and overwhelming user interface. But despite that, AutoRuns did give us a good picture of the programs configured to run during start-up.

From the get-go, we were overwhelmed by AutoRuns' interface. The tabs indicating our PC's different programs were scrunched together and the tiny icons on each tab made them difficult to read. The same could be said for the actual information within each tab. Resizing the window only marginally helped the view. A tree-menu style interface … Read more

A program worth learning

David Nash's Startup Manager is a free utility that lets you choose the programs you want to run at start-up. We had to visit the Help feature to make sure we were on the right track, but in the end it worked well for us.

The program's user interface uses a tree menu to locate the different start-up sections--StartUp, Registry, and WinINI. Depending on what you select, the individual files appear in the main panel. All of the command buttons were within quick reach at the top of the window. But even though the interface appeared to be … Read more

More functionality than the Window's tool

More-experienced users not happy with Windows' Startup Manager will appreciate this simple but effective utility. 12Ghosts StartupGuard's simple two tab interface combines the familiarity of the Windows tool with a few fixes. Anyone with an understanding of Startup management will immediately comprehend this program's operation.

The program's main tab merely lists all programs set to open at Windows Start. A quick click on a column sorts the list by description, Registry location, or Command Line instruction--three options that are unavailable in the default Windows tool. With a simple check-box click, you easily set an item to not … Read more

Deceptively labeled as a free version

The too-simple features and operation can leave users lacking confidence in this system tweaking and cleaning application. Advertised as a free version, this is merely a limited 14-day demo of the Magic Speed tools. Of course, the demo won't remove problems without registration. A Wizard moves users through a series of plainly designed information interfaces.

Magic Speed's first function is a basic list of start-up programs. Each gets a simple indicator that marks it as a system requirement, virus, or user's choice. Clicking the detail link opens a Google search for each item. It's mostly the … Read more

'Free-mium,' self-funded models set to gain traction

Sooner or later, I will put all my 2009 predictions together, but in the meantime, I've come up with two business trends that I think we'll see next year:

Web start-ups will move to premium services and subscriptions Self-funding will rule for "ecosystem" plays

Ad-supported sites will move to a "free-mium" approach or die by the end of the year. Free-mium and paid services will become the norm next year, as advertising wanes and companies realize that ad-supported business models were not that great to begin with. Even Digg, with all its traffic, has little to show for the advertising model. … Read more

Why Europe is no land of brilliant start-ups

American tech entrepreneurs would rather answer e-mails in the middle of the night than have sex. It is the reverse for Europeans.

At least that seems to be the conclusion of a very stimulating post by the splendidly populist Andrew Keen.

Mr. Keen, who, I am led to understand by the excellent Owen Thomas of Valleywag, is rather enthusiastic for the poor not to have Internet access, relayed a very interesting discussion between Michael Arrington of TechCrunch and Loic LeMeur, the CEO of Seesmic, a video social-networking company.

Apparently, there is a general lamentation in Europe that it has originated … Read more

Working overtime for venture capital funding

Editor's note: This is part of a series of stories about the recession's effect on the tech industry.

Entrepreneur Treb Ryan remembers in vivid detail the day the Dow Jones Industrial Average plummeted nearly 700 points and dropped below 9,000 for the first time in years.

He was visiting a major computer maker on that day, October 9, waiting to meet with a potential investor about funding his start-up OpSource.

"I was about a half an hour early for the appointment and was sitting in the lobby, where they have a big screen TV," recalled … Read more

Small is beautiful for green-tech newbies

Les Fritzemeier heads up a tiny solar-energy start-up that most people have never heard of, Wakonda Technologies. But rather than worry about being steamrolled by the sliding economy, he feels like he's in a great spot.

"In a lot of respects, the best time to start a company is in the middle of a recession, assuming you've got money," he said. "Our target is to go to market when most people expect the economy to turn around."

Without a doubt, the recession and lower oil prices are hurting many companies in clean tech, a … Read more