StartShield allows you to view and manage the programs and services that are set to run automatically whenever your computer starts. The program is designed for non-technical users and aims to provide a plain English report with description and recommendation for each item. Unfortunately this report is tedious to navigate and often limited to a generic blurb that lacks credible reasons that explain why StartShield recommends to disable a certain service. In fact, it offers recommendations that will actually increase the number of startup items by changing many services from `manual` to `automatic` mode - probably not what most users are looking for. The additional Startup Browser allows you to view a list of all startup items along with their file details and gives you the option to disable or delete and entry. The program also includes a StartGuard which is designed to alert you when new items are added to your startup areas, unfortunately it only checks for new items each time you reboot your computer, which could be days after the fact. Other features include MD5 signature validation and integration with an online database to retrieve recommendations. StartShield makes a decent attempt to make startup management more accessible for non-technical users but we find that it needs a lot more work to compete with other products in this category.
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SnapFiles©
XP/Vista/7
