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A Look Inside WinPatrol and WinPatrol Plus

I've written about WinPatrol and WinPatrol Plus a lot of times in the past because I believe that it's a great tool for anyone who wants to make their computer run better and more safely.

The WinPatrol Plus option (the paid license) gets you easy-to-access information about the programs — so you can make intelligent decisions on whether to allow them to automatically start or not. I didn't make anything for recommending WinPatrol Plus — I recommended it because I believe in it.

Let's take a look at a few of the WinPatrol features:

The images below are the standard WinPatrol/WinPatrol Plus interface. The one on the left is WinPatrol. The one on the right is WinPatrol Plus and looks the same, except that I added a checkmark to activate the new extra feature added to WinPatrol Plus to display hidden startup locations, too. As you can see, the added items are mostly Microsoft's own additional programs.

WinPatrol — Hidden Startup Locations unavailable (click on the image for a larger version)

WinPatrol Plus — Hidden Startup Locations checked (click on the image for a larger version)

The next set of images shows one of the major incremental values of WinPatrol Plus — the information that is available about the programs will find running.

First, we have the same "Startup Programs" tab selected. Then, we select the program about which we are curious (or maybe suspicious).

(click on the image for a larger version)

Then, click on the Info button to see what WinPatrol was able to find out about the program, based on the information in the program and in the Windows registry.

(click on the image for a larger version)

In this particular case, one thing that it tells me that Eset needs to update their Copyright statement in the NOD32 nod32kui.exe file. NOD32 is the anti-virus program that I use and recommend.

If you've got a WinPatrol Plus license (which is good for all your household's PC's!), you can click on the PLUS Info... button for details from BillP Studios' programs database.

(click on the image for a larger version)

The Delayed Start tab is a great, new addition to WinPatrol and WinPatrol Plus. As you can see, I've taken four of the programs that would normally start as I'm booting, and have changed them to start in the background after I've finished booting.

(click on the image for a larger version)

The Replicator entry shows that I can change the delay time, too. I use Replicator to back up my data across my home network every night. I need to make sure it's running, but I don't really need it as booting. I could just as easily change it to start up to 60 minutes after I booted.

Some of the other features I have found very helpful are:

• IE Helpers, which lets me control the add-ons that have been installed into Internet Explorer,
• Services, which shows me the various Windows XP Services. There's even a checkbox so that I can have WinPatrol show only the non-Microsoft services, making it easier to spot a problem. WinPatrol's Services tab is one of the few places where you can find out about all those copies of svchost.exe that are running on your computer.
• Monitoring my Windows Hosts file,
• Monitoring File Types for changes to which program is their default (ever installed a new program, only to find that it had grabbed the file types for your pictures or your music files?).
• Identifying, and optionally killing, active programs.
• Identifying, and optionally removing, scheduled tasks.

Finally, I really like WinPatrol Plus' family-friendly license. The web site says " NO Additional Licenses required
You become the PLUS member, not your computer. You're welcome and encouraged to install WinPatrol and activate PLUS on any machine you or your immediate family use."

Copyright © 2007 Terry A. Stockdale. All rights reserved.