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View Full Version : How to log application starts in WinXP?


briank
11-08-2006, 10:29 PM
What I'd like to go is keep a log of every process that starts from boot-up on. It doesn't have to store the process start time, but the log needs to be in chronological order at least.

Why? I have some process that runs about 5 minutes after boot up and then again 30 minutes after boot-up. It causes the game Live for Speed to dump out into the desktop. When this happens I see a program with no icon and no name in the task bar and then it disappears (executes and shuts down) within 1 second. Not enough time for me to open task manager and attempt to catch the process name.

I suspect its PC-cillin antivirus or HP's printer software checking for updates, but I have no wa y of being sure. I really think its HP's software. I just did some updates and now this program runs every 20 minutes instead of just twice at bootup. I *do* have automatic updates turned off in HP solution center, but something is still running.

I guess time to uninstall this HP bloatware. I would still like to find some software that can log application starts though. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

pigster
11-09-2006, 08:29 AM
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/sysinternals/processesandthreads/processmonitor.mspx

briank
11-09-2006, 08:53 AM
Great, thanks!

Gatticus
11-09-2006, 04:56 PM
I bought an HP Laser Printer not long ago and it comes with some software that sends back your printer stats to HP so they can try and sell you more ink. You can uninstall that part of the software though, as I did. Lexmark has similar spyware in their printer software too but they don't give you an option to uninstall that part of the software.