The Windows firewall starts as last at startup. Can anyone please help me?

[Alexandra N]

Hello

My computer runs on Windows XP and I noticed a while ago(maybe a month), that at startup, the firewall(Windows Firewall) starts as last. I know that because it first connects to the Internet(I can see the small screens-tray icons turn blue) and then a message pops up saying the Windows Firewall is not activated. I have controlled it and indeed, it wasn't active. After waiting another 10-15 seconds and checking again, it got active. And that happens each time I restart my computer.
Am I running a real risk? Can anyone please tell me how to change the start-up order of the services without having to download some software?

Thank you!
Alexandra.

[EzyStvy]

I don't think you can adjust this and I wouldn't worry about it. The odds of some hacker waiting around so he can catch you while you're booting up are extremly slim to none.

[rjfvillarosa]

Changing the startup order will involve editing the Windows registry which is not a great idea. There are a few free programs out there that can do this for you but I have never used one so I cannot vouch for how good they are.
To me the first thing you should do is check what applications are starting up with Windows and out of them which ones are unecessary.
Ccleaner is a good application for keeping your Windows install fresh and clean and it has a handy tool that shows you what is in the startup list, you can use this tool to disable or delete startup items, if you are unsure of what to delete from the startup list just disable them and see what happens.
If you can give us a list of what is in your startup list we maybe able to make some suggestions for you.

Ccleaner is a free application, download it here:

http://www.ccleaner.com

[Alexandra N]

I installed Ccleaner and I checked if something suspicious was starting up. Nothing suspicious. I disabled a few things that I don't use very often, though. I'd give you a list with what's at startup, but the Ccleaner doesn't allow copy paste and it's quite a list.
Thank you!

[rjfvillarosa]

Originally Posted by Alexandra N it's quite a list.

Not good...


All my Windows machines have one application in startup "ctfmon.exe" which is a Windows application that will just come back if you delete it from the list. My antivirus application (AVG) runs as a service in the background and I don't need the tray icon running.
You can use an application called hijackthis to find and list the startup items, install hijackthis to your desktop and run it immediately your computer starts before you open anything else.
Hijackthis will produce a text file list of everything that’s going on in your computer; you can copy and paste the whole text file or just the "04's" back here as a post in this thread. The 04's are the startup items; if you post the whole list we can check it for any known/recognisable malware as well.
You can download hijackthis for free here:
http://free.antivirus.com/hijackthis/

[glc]

If you are behind a router, you shouldn't have to worry, it's acting as a hardware firewall.

[Alexandra N]

I'm actually behind a router. Here's what I have at startup:
SpybotSD TeaTimer
NVIDIA nTune
Skype
RTHDCPL
Alcmtr
PSQLLauncher
WLSS
GCTray
PdjAssistant
ProgramDJ
Wow Video&Audio
RemoteControl
avast!
TkBellExe
NvCplDaemon
nwiz
NvMediaCenter
IMJPMIG8.1
IMEKRMIG6.1
MSPY2002
PHIME2002ASync
PHIME2002A
SunJavaUpdateSched
BTTray.lnk
Translate Client.lnk

[rjfvillarosa]

Use Ccleaner to Disable (not delete) all those Startup items apart from Avast. Leave Avast running and just watch what happens.
Nothing I see in your list is vital, if you find something you use a lot is not starting up and you want it to you can just re-enable it.
Personally I don't like Avast. I have two clients that are running it on their office machines because they received it as part of a free package when they bought battery backup units, all of their machines are slow to boot and Avast is forever putting up nag screens about this and that.
Skype is another culprit for slowing down boot times.

[David M]

I don't know if you know but you can stop most of that from running when you boot by going to Run/enter "MSCONFIG" and then click on the Startup tab. Start unchecking things you do not need to boot at startup. If you do not know what something is then you can Google it. If you uncheck something you can always click on its startup icon and it will boot when you need it. You really do have a lot of software unnecessarily booting at startup.