Driver Loading Order - XP

[corkyg]

Anyone know what determines the order in which XP loads drivers and startup apps. Can the order be adjusted? How?

 

[AFB]

There is an xp utility. Forgot the name but yes, it shows you the order.

 

[corkyg]

OK - that's a start - anyone know the name of said utility?

 

[AFB]

Let me look...

 

[AFB]

Bootvis. I had to look in my download stash. You will have to google for a mirror as microsoft took it down.

 

[Abhi]

Bootvis also makes your Windows bootup faster...

Trace-> Optimize

 

[corkyg]

OK - Bootvis does not do what I want. I want to rearrange the order in which certain things load during boot - specifically, I want to make the Antivirus program load last. It delays everything else because it takes longer than the rest.

 

[bsobel]

Originally posted by: corky-g
OK - Bootvis does not do what I want. I want to rearrange the order in which certain things load during boot - specifically, I want to make the Antivirus program load last. It delays everything else because it takes longer than the rest.

Which AV? None the less, you probably don't want to do this as you may open a window where an attacker can hit the machine during boot before AV is active (trust me on this one, it does happen)

Bill

 

[corkyg]

Originally posted by: bsobel

Which AV? None the less, you probably don't want to do this as you may open a window where an attacker can hit the machine during boot before AV is active (trust me on this one, it does happen) Bill[/quote]

Not very likely - I almost don't need an AV anymore because it is provided by Postini SpamDam - a service of my ISP. Since I have been using that, it has trapped every virus at my POP box and nothing gets to be downloaded.

Anyway, the AV is McAfee - been using it since 1984 when it was shareware. 🙂

 

[AFB]

Try this.

 

[bsobel]

Originally posted by: amdfanboy
Try this.

That program is for startup applications, not drivers.
Bill

 

[Smilin]

The boot order is determied by the group the driver or service belongs to and then the tag order within that group.

You can check the group & tag of a driver or service in: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\<servicename>

I've got a listing of the group orders here but it's not electronic and too much of a pain to type out. If you have something specific in mind let me know what you're trying to do. Mind you without knowing what you're up to it's still probably a bad idea 🙂 hehe

 

[Smilin]

Just caught up with the rest of the thread.

To make antivirus load last you may consider making it load in your startup folder rather than as a service. Check the kbase for your antivirus most allow this. Doing it this way may open you up a bit to certain boot sector viruses.

Couple other things you can do: put it in a really low order group like SpoolerGroup, change the startup type from boot or system to auto (loads later) or try the above and make it load as a program rather than service.