XP Startup Cleaner 2.5

XP Startup Cleaner is a Windows startup manager. This means that it's able to remove and add programs to the list of applications that start up when you boot your system. The funny thing is the fact that the publisher describes the usual way to add programs that run upon Windows startup (add them to All Programs -> Startup).

The application displays each location that can be used to run programs on startup (startup folder, registry keys, win.ini section, and user initialization). When you click the icon corresponding to one of these locations, you'll be able to see all the processes that are run from there on startup. Besides removing an entry, you can also disable it by unchecking its checkbox. Modifying an entry is also supported.

Pluses:

Drawbacks / flaws: When the program asks you whether to remove a startup item, it displays the full path to the file which should be removed. This is a bit confusing, considering that most of the times, the user doesn't want to delete the actual executable.

Another big drawback of this software is the fact that it allows you to remove a critical system process called userinit.exe from the operating system's startup. I had to reinstall my Windows, because I removed that executable from startup using XP Startup Cleaner. After you remove userinit.exe from startup, you won't be able to log into your system anymore, so be very careful.

In conclusion: I would have liked a bit more from such an application. Knowing that it let me delete something critical for my operating system, I really don't like this application. To put it another way, would be to say that it's not recommended for beginners, although I'm not really a beginner.

version reviewed: 2.0