Startups - File-system plugin to list and manage startups

[Dalai]

Hi there

I've written my second file-system plugin and just published it on totalcmd.net.

At the moment it is still in beta state, but it is quite stable.

What is Startups?
Startups is a file-system plugin that can list, disable, analyze, edit and delete system startups that are located in the Registry or Start Menu.

General features

• List system startups that are located in the Registry (HKCU, HKLM in Run and RunOnce, respectively) and Start Menu folders (All Users and current user)
• Disable startups so they don't start automatically, but can easily be re-enabled
• Run startups manually on request
• Delete startups

It is - in some aspects - similar to the old StartupGuard plugin written by Sergey Puljajev. It uses the same approach to disable startups and has some advantages over StartupGuard, but doesn't have all of the features as those of lesser importance were left out.

Advanced features

• Manage startups in 32 and 64 bit Registry branches on 64 bit Windows
• Show correct executable information in the file list of Total Commander (32 bit) on Windows 64 bit, i.e. file date/time and sizes
• Show information about the executable like file size, company name, file version, description and so on
• Edit startups, e.g. command line parameters, name etc.
• Ability to show startups with the same name in different locations as each startup will have a unique name.
• Copy or move startups to a different location, even across Registry and Start Menu (with some limitations)
• Unicode capable
• 64 Bit version to use in Total Commander x64
• Translation to other languages possible (Danish, English, German and Russian included in the package)
• Support for custom columns (default view available)
• View and edit properties specific to Start Menu shortcuts like comments and window state
• Check if a startup is currently running, with matching process names and matching command lines
• Jump to the startup's executable with Enter and/or Shift+Enter

More screenshots can be found in this gallery, including Startup properties dialog, Custom columns view, Plugin settings and "File" download (F3).

[Edit 2021-10] A simple download mirror is now available, just in case totalcmd.net is down. [/Edit]

Please feel free to test it, comment, discuss, report bugs and so on .

I'm not really happy with the plugin's icon. If anyone has some better icon that fits the plugin's functionality that I can use, please feel free to post here or contact me.



If you want to make a translation of this plugin to your own language:

1. Make a copy of "English.lng" to "<your_language>.lng". Be sure to use the language's English name for the file name!
2. Open "<your_language>.lng" in your favorite editor. The .lng files should be encoded in Unicode (UTF-16).
3. Translate all strings. Please ensure you don't have duplicate keyboard shortcuts for labels, buttons etc. within the same dialog.
4. Add the language's name in the native language to section [Language].
   (optional) Add your name, nick and/or the date of the translation to section [Language].
5. Repeat steps 2 and 3 with pluginst.inf and Startups.lng (custom columns). Note: These two files should be encoded in ANSI.
6. Send the new language files to the e-mail address mentioned in the Readme, or post a link to the file in this thread.

Regards
Dalai

[Peter]

Hi Dalai

I made a quick view to the plugin - seem to be a fine, handy thing. Thank you

What's about "print" in contextmenu? I get a message from TC: "Function not supported."

Peter

[deus-ex]

Hello Dalai,

a very nice new plugin you have there. The user interface is clean and understandable, overall appearance of the plugin has a very professional touch.

The plugin already proofed to be quite useful as it lists Microsoft's BrowserChoice as one of the enabled start-up entries on my system, while Sysinternal's Autorun does not report it at all. Although I think this particular application is a run once only entry which shows up right after the installation of the Windows operating system is finished, afterwards it is meant to be never executed again.

A suggestion for improvement:
In the properties dialog the left most button on the bottom reads "Run startup now". It is not clear whether clicking this button will execute the entire list of startup entries or just the current one shown in the properties dialog. If it is the latter one I suggest changing the button label to "Run this startup".

Thank you very much for another very good plugin.

[Dalai]

What's about "print" in contextmenu? I get a message from TC: "Function not supported."

That's the standard/default context menu that appears in any plugin or on FTP connections. So, it's nothing that's added by this (or any other) plugin.

The plugin already proofed to be quite useful as it lists Microsoft's BrowserChoice as one of the enabled start-up entries on my system, while Sysinternal's Autorun does not report it at all.

I don't think this is correct. AutoRuns hides Windows and/or Microsoft startups by default which can be changed in its options. Disable this option to see all startups, including BrowserChoice.

In the properties dialog the left most button on the bottom reads "Run startup now". It is not clear whether clicking this button will execute the entire list of startup entries or just the current one shown in the properties dialog. If it is the latter one I suggest changing the button label to "Run this startup".

I think it is clear since the dialog is titled "Properties of XY", so everything inside this dialog is related to this specific startup. And the button isn't labeled "Run startups now" (no plural). BTW: Would it make any sense to launch all listed startups? If this button would launch all startups I would've labeled it "Run all listed startups now" or something like that.

Adding words is not so easy since I have to take translations into account (at the moment I'm not sure if the available space is sufficient), and longer labels/translations result in wider dialogs...

Regards
Dalai

[Peter]

...I think it is clear since the dialog is titled "Properties of XY", so everything inside this dialog is related to this specific startup. And the button isn't labeled "Run startups now" (no plural). BTW: Would it make any sense to launch all listed startups? ...

But the "Startup-folder" (with all its entries) is also singular, and to run all startups would (semi-)"simulate" a reboot.

Peter

[deus-ex]

I don't think this is correct. AutoRuns hides Windows and/or Microsoft startups by default which can be changed in its options. Disable this option to see all startups, including BrowserChoice.

Ah yes, you're correct. I totally forgot about this setting.

BTW: Would it make any sense to launch all listed startups?

Most probably not, at least no reason comes to my mind.

[deus-ex]

But the "Startup-folder" (with all its entries) is also singular, and to run all startups would (semi-)"simulate" a reboot.

What Peter said.

[Dalai]

[...] and to run all startups would (semi-)"simulate" a reboot.

Huh, didn't think of that . It makes me wonder how often such a feature would be useful/needed, and if that's enough for me to implement it... But if I would, I don't know where to put this "emergency" button .

Regards
Dalai

[Peter]

... It makes me wonder how often such a feature would be useful/needed, and if that's enough for me to implement it....

I think there is a misunderstanding - I'm talking about the modification of the string "Run startup now" to "Run this startup" as deus-ex mentioned above. No new feature, no implementation ...

[Dalai]

Is the label "Run startup now" really that amgiguous, although everything in the properties dialog is about the specific startup? The "Delete" button doesn't delete all startups, does it?

[deus-ex]

It is just a suggestion, and it already found another user supporting it. Feel free to accept the suggestion or not. Please also try to judge from a user point of view, through the eyes of the plugin developer probably everything makes totally sense.

[petermad]

2Dalai
Thank you for this new plugin.

Danish translation can be downloaded at:
http://madsenworld.dk/tcmd/wfx_Startups_0.3.0_Danish.rar

Bugs:
The string: "ProductVersion (fixed)" does not translate.

The option: "Load Custom Columns View upon entering the plugin" does not seem to have any effect - I have to enable this in TC's Custom columns setup: "Switch to this view when using this plugin"

[Dalai]

Danish translation can be downloaded at:
http://madsenworld.dk/tcmd/wfx_Startups_0.3.0_Danish.rar

Thanks! Will include it in the next release.

Bugs:
The string: "ProductVersion (fixed)" does not translate.

Yes, another translator already indicated this mistake to me, and I already fixed it in the archive. You can either download it again or just remove the space in the key "ProductVersion (fixed)" in [Common] section. I didn't notice it during development since the default string is the same. There's another "error" in Startups.lng that I'll correct shortly (the "64 bit" key is superfluous).

The option: "Load Custom Columns View upon entering the plugin" does not seem to have any effect - I have to enable this in TC's Custom columns setup: "Switch to this view when using this plugin"

Well, no matter what I do (custom columns enabled by default in Services2 or disabled by default in this plugin), someone will have trouble to either really enable or disable them....
If your TC lists a custom columns view in Configuration > Display > Custom Columns > Configure columns for file system > Startups, then you have to configure it there.

Some tech info: The option controls whether the plugin reports a default custom columns view to TC or not (as is stated in the readme, too). I think that, if I'd label the option "Report default Custom Columns View to TC", most users wouldn't have a clue what this means... If you, or anybody else, have a suggestion how to label this option, so that the normal user knows what this option does, please let me know.

Regards
Dalai

[petermad]

Maybe call it "Make the plugin Custom column aware".

[Dalai]

Update to Version 0.4.0

Code: Select all

Version 0.4.0 [2015-11-20]
[+]  Added another Russian translation, thanks to alex3f!
[+]  Added option Monitor to [Startups] section. See readme for details
[*]  Fixed wrong placement of dialogs on multi-monitor systems.
     Previously the dialogs were placed on the primary monitor, now they
     will be placed on the active monitor (the one TC is displayed on)
[+]  Plugin settings dialog: The translator's name (or more precisely
     the contents of the Translator key) of every language file will now
     be shown next to the language file name

Version 0.3.1 [2015-07-21]
[!]  No public release!
[+]  Startup properties dialog: Added button to browse for a file, with
     options to replace the command line, append it to the command line
     or insert it at the cursor position
[+]  Startup properties dialog: Added warning that is shown in case the
     executable is not found
[+]  Added option to use Vista style open dialogs, see readme for explanation
[+]  Added Russian translation, thanks to Sergey Alekseev!
[+]  Added Danish translation, thanks to petermad!
[*]  Made all dialogs wider to account for longer translations
[*]  Return icons to TC in requested size. Previously, the plugin's internal
     icons were always large, all others were small.
[*]  Show empty directory in case no startups are found
[*]  Handle some more errors to avoid some exceptions

Download link is available in the first post.

Note to the translators: There are some new strings that need translation - lines 99-102 and 132 in English.lng. Of course, you can also use TC's Compare by contents to find them .

A note about the "Run startup now" button:
I've changed the label to "Run this startup now" in English.lng and the internal English, but I'll leave it to the translators to change/follow it. I won't change it for the German translation as this would be too long (for the available button width).

Feedback is highly appreciated!

Regards
Dalai