In Pictures: Top 15 free tools for every Windows desktop

Powerful Windows utilities for a fast, productive desktop environment

Free Windows tool No. 10: Autoruns

Programs that run automatically when Windows starts bedevil everyone. This industrial-strength autostart listing tool knows all, and lets you do something about it. If you’ve never used Autoruns, you’re in for a shock. Autostarting programs lurk in the most obscure corners of Windows. The “Everything” tab (shown in the screen shot) lists every program that starts automatically, in the order in which it is run. Click on the program to see details. Right-click and choose Search Online to look up the program on the Web, using your default browser and search engine. You can filter out the Microsoft programs, and have Autoruns show just the third-party interlopers that have been deposited on your machine.

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