Refining an idea

[Prince]

I want to create a "profile starter" for windows. Basically, it will remove all the application running at startup (from registry/StartUp...)and will only load itself. This will allow faster loading of Windows, and will really help in the times when u have to quickly check something.

After loading itself it will show you different profiles such as "Game Mode", "Internet Mode", or some other user customized profiles. Each profile will only load what is necessary for the purpose user started the machine. Will avoid laoding extra application.

The problem is how to automate which progam it should take over and which it should run at start up.

[Galen of Edgewood]

Very interesting idea, Prince. It would not be an easy task, I'd wager, in the Win9x world. Do able, but not easy. Still, if you could do it, and do it well and easy to use, I'd suggest trying to market it.

You can do something to that effect with Windows 2000 and to a lesser effect with Windows NT via logons. You create different accounts with different access permissions. If you were going to play games, a power user might be the best bet. For plain internet usage, you could create a User. For really screwing up your system, just use the admin.

I've absolutely no experience with XP, so I don't know how it works. If Scuttle would like to hop in and enlighten me about that, I'd appreciate it.

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Don't you wish that life sometimes supported Control-Z?

[Skeelo]

Well in Win2K, aren't most programs loaded on Windows starting in the registry? I wouldn't go about messing around with the registry while Windows is loading.

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html.dataraq.com

[rock]

This reminds me of the original DOS multi-boot days. This was all done in config.sys and autoexec.bat and you'd get an immediate options of things like:
Minimal
FORTRAN environment
dos4wg games
IPX games
Network games
QEMM
Windows

Ahh, the good old days. I had a setup like this through Win95 as most of the stuff I still did in DOS. Since then though, it's rare to boot into DOS.

On topic though, I have no idea how to do this in Win2k but it seems like too much effort for the reward. Wind2k at its minimal is such a hog, why save loading a couple 100K dlls here and there?

[Prince]

Originally posted by Skeelo:
Well in Win2K, aren't most programs loaded on Windows starting in the registry? I wouldn't go about messing around with the registry while Windows is loading.

Registry is a monstor if u don't konw what is doing what. I know how to control load up programs, i do it with my eyes closed now.

As for DLL, not touching that. DLL hell is even an army of Microsot cannot solve. This program will only control the programs that are loading in the start up.

[dighn]

Plausible idea. The real difficult part would be how to deal with newly installed programs that add themselves to the autorun reg keys. You could create a timer to check for new values but you can't make it too frequent so if you restart before the next check, that registry change will slip by your program. You could add an additional check on startup but your program probably will not be able to delete the value fast enough to prevent the newly installed program from autostarting. Since you cannot easily intercept registry changes, checking newly installed autoruns will be a problem, unless you don't mind having the program starting at least once of course...

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Keep it brief

[Humus]

If you want to do it the advanced way you can put a hook in there and monitor the registry changes without the need for a timer.

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Tweak your Radeon. Get Raid on Tweaker here

[dighn]

Originally posted by Humus:
If you want to do it the advanced way you can put a hook in there and monitor the registry changes without the need for a timer.

I thought there weren't any registry hooks?
At least not conventional ones (ie set up by SetupWindowsHookEx())

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Keep it brief

[This message has been edited by dighn (edited September 18, 2001).]