a short while ago I had my Windows completely reinstalled. As I wanted everything nice and clean again, I installed Comodo Firewall (v2.4 back then) as very first application, and right after that my virus scanner. From that time on CF would always be started as very first non-Windows application on Windows startup, everything I installed afterwards and what needed a startup entry, was loaded after Comodo - just the way I wanted it to be.
And then came CFP v3; and during install it uninstalled the previously installed version of CF and installed itself. But now CF is - of course - one of the latest applications that were installed on my computer, and therefore it is loaded very late on system startup. Long after Printer helpers, Logitech Webcam stuff and several other applications I rather had “supervised” by my firewall. The Systray Icon of CF currently appears as the last Systray icon, and also the process IDs of cfp.exe and cmdagent.exe indicate that it is being loaded very late.
Is there a way to change the startup order of installed programs without using some hack like a startup delayer? Windows must have some entries for it’s startup applications where they are listed in the order of their installation. Does somebody know where to search for?
I played around with a startup manager in one of my filemanagers and disabled everything but CF, restarted the system and then re-enabled everything else which also caused CF to be the first application to be listed - at least in this startup manager’s list - but that didn’t do the trick. And MSCONFIG doesn’t influence the startup order either.
So, if someone knows something, please let me know. I couldn’t find anything apart from some delayers that apply a delay of some seconds or minutes, which is actually not what I want…
I believe that cfpagent.exe starts very early in the boot process and protection is active thanks to it. The later appearance of cfp.exe and the icon in the tray only reflects the unavailability of the CFP interface for modification before it appears.
I know that cfp is just the GUI. But still, the process ID of cmdagent is even higher than that of cfp.exe, so the service appears to be even loaded after the GUI. And both will be loaded after a bunch of other applications that I’d prefer to have controlled by my firewall, just as it was before the upgrade to CF3.
Hi Berserk, I had read your thread some days ago and i went googling about the startup registry process for windows, specifically winxp. I read various sites including MS and a couple of forums and other tweak guides for XP registry, they all say that it really doesn’t matter what order the files are listed in the startup entry in the registry, because Windows itself decides what order it loads each program when it startups up WinXP or whatever windows OS.
also it says some entries are dependent on one another, if you go changing the order they load in then you could inevidently/most likely cause a loop where two dependent services that rely on one another that need to be started in a certain other will cause the bootup process to hang! because they will both be waiting for the other to load first, and there is no way of knowing which order they are suppose to be set in since it is a dependent service
I’ve taken a look at my registry if you really! want to find where the startup programs are listed, then you can run regedit and use the Find search thing and look for startup, you’ll be able to tell when you’ve found the right reg key folder because you’ll see all your startup programs listed.
the best way i read to organise it though is using a third party reg startup program, cos the other way is not recommended by MS or anyone else and doing it manually will make no difference since its windows that decides what order it loads things and it can change the order anytime to make the bootup process it deems quickest and best.
hope that answers that for you, i did alot of looking into that after i read your post some days ago, because i was interested in trying the samething, but seems its not worth it even if you use a third party software, Windows will change the order things loads up if it wants to regardless of what order you setted in the third party reg startup software.
sorry if I’ve not explained that situation well, but it was some days ago i researched about it
Hello Ron, thank you for your reply. And thank you even more for your research. You took it much further than I could…
Reading what you found out makes me wonder if nevertheless one could tell Windows somehow - without dictating a certain timed delay for certain services or applications - to load the firewall before the other stuff, just as it did right after the fresh installation with the firewall being installed first. As far as I understand it, that’s also sort of what tools like “bootvis” do; it scans the system startup and changes the order of things to be started in order to accelerate Windows’ boot up.
I think I will have a look at those startup delayers, even though I find it sort of counterproductive having an additional application in my startup to control the others startup order - with all the side effects of another (permanently?) running process. But maybe they do work differently (meaning non-permanently and/or not running at each system startup) than I expect. Some of them even promise to be able to permanently block the addition of certain startup entries, and I’d like to kick NeroCheck’s, Adobe Speed Launcher’s and Quicktime’s startup ■■■! ;D
Again, thanks for your efforts. Though, I had up my hope that there was a way without scripts or hacks…
it looks like a lot of work though if your gonna try and do it manually :-
those links though should guide you if you want to do it manually or direct you to a software or tool that can organise the startup process
