Startup Cop

Startup Cop • Download • Demo

Continued from Saving Profiles

The list in the middle of the Restore profile page displays the names of all saved profiles. A green light next to the name indicates that this profile stores the names of start-up items to be enabled. Upon restoring this profile, only these items will be enabled; any item not listed will be disabled. A yellow light next to the name indicates that this profile stores the names of start-up items to be disabled. Upon restoring this profile, only these items will be disabled; any item not listed will be enabled.

When you select one of the profiles, the list on the right-hand side of the page displays the names of the start-up items contained in this profile. The label above that list indicates whether these items are to be enabled or disabled. Click the Delete profile button to delete the highlighted profile.

To restore the profile within Startup Cop without applying the changes, just click Restore. To restore the profile, apply its changes, and immediately log off or restart Windows, click the & Log off or the & Restart button. Note that when you simply log off, the start-up items in the Registry (Machine Services) location will not be launched again, though all of the others will.

When you click the Shortcut button, Startup Cop will create a desktop shortcut that restores the currently selected profile and applies its changes. The shortcut's name will be the profile name. If Startup Cop is not running at the time you launch a profile shortcut, it will do its job and then terminate. If Startup Cop is already running, the shortcut will communicate with the active instance of Startup Cop and the program will not terminate.

If you click the w/ Log off button, Startup Cop will create a shortcut that restores the profile and logs off. Similarly, the w/ Restart button creates a shortcut that restores the profile and restarts Windows. The name for such a shortcut will be the profile name preceded by "[L]" or "[R]". The exact behavior of the shortcut is defined by the command line that Startup Cop builds. You can manually enter these command-line arguments from the Start Menu's Run dialog, or by typing the command at an MS-DOS prompt.

The first argument is the profile name, which must be enclosed in double-quotation marks if it contains any spaces. If you add /L as the second argument, Startup Cop will log off after successfully restoring the profile. If you add /R, it will restart Windows after successfully restoring the profile. Any command line that doesn't match this specification will generate an error message detailing the correct syntax. For example, the command

STARTCOP "All My Children"

will restore the profile named "All My Children" and apply the changes. If Startup Cop was not already running, it will terminate after applying the changes. The command

STARTCOP "Bare necessities" /R

will restore the profile "Bare necessities" and then restart Windows. The command

STARTCOP "No TweakUI" /L

will restore the profile "No TweakUI" and then log off. The command

STARTCOP Very Best Profile

will fail; it needs double-quotation marks around the profile name.

Next: Startup Cop and Windows 98

Published in the 4/20/99 issue of PC Magazine.