StartWise

Every computer collects things that start with it: services, scheduled tasks, run keys, login items, launch agents, cron lines. Nobody remembers installing half of them, and nobody can say with confidence which ones can go. A machine that boots slowly is usually carrying a dozen entries it does not need — and one it does, which is the one that takes the database, the VPN client or the sign-in screen with it when it is switched off.

Why I built it

Because the usual start-up manager is a list with a checkbox, and the checkbox answers the wrong question. The question that matters is not “can I switch this off” — any tool can do that — but “what happens if I do, and how do I get it back”. A tool that says safe without knowing is worse than no tool, because it is believed.

So the rule it was built around is honesty. Every item gets a verdict with the reasoning behind it: how much harm switching it off could do, how sure the program is, and what it based that on. Where it cannot tell, it says Unknown and asks for your confirmation; it never rounds a guess up to Safe. And nothing it does is a one-way door.

The problem

Start-up entries are scattered, and each operating system scatters them differently:

• Windows keeps them in registry run keys, in the startup folders, as services and as scheduled tasks — four places, four tools, and a service that another service quietly depends on.
• Linux keeps them as systemd units (system and per-user), desktop autostart files, @reboot cron lines and rc.local.
• macOS keeps them as launch agents and daemons and as login items.
• A name is not an explanation. svc_upd and com.vendor.helper say nothing about what stops working when they are gone.
• Nothing tells you what you changed. Three weeks later something does not start, and there is no record of what was switched off or how to put it back.

What I did

• One list for three operating systems. Windows, Linux and macOS, read where each keeps its start-up entries, in one window and one command line. It is not for phones.
• A verdict, not a checkbox. Each item is rated Safe, Low, Caution, High, Critical or Unknown for what switching it off would do, with a confidence and the evidence. A dependency it can measure on the machine — another service that needs this one — raises the rating. An item it considers critical is never switched off.
• Switching off never deletes. It uses the mechanism the system itself provides for disabling an entry — the start-up flag Windows keeps, the saved service start type, systemctl disable, launchctl disable — so switching it back on is exactly the reverse.
• Review before anything changes. The switches only mark; Review & apply lists every change and what it would do, and the ones that need care ask for a tick first.
• Start a program with the computer. It lists programs that are running, or installed, but do not start with the machine. Switch one on and it creates the right kind of entry for the operating system — a run key or scheduled task, a systemd unit, an autostart file or cron line, a launch agent or daemon — showing you exactly what it will create. It can be switched off or removed later; it will only ever remove an entry it made itself.
• Backup and restore. The whole set-up can be saved and put back. A copy is saved automatically before the first change, and a restore shows what would change before it changes it. Every change is in History, with Undo.
• Knowledge that can be updated. What it knows about each program, and where each operating system keeps its entries, is a data file rather than code, so it can be updated when an operating system changes without a new program. An update can add and correct knowledge and can raise a warning, but it can never lower one the program already gives, and it contains no code. The internet is touched only when you ask. A self-check reports whether every place it reads still works on the version of the operating system you run.
• Nothing leaves the machine. The window is a page the program serves on the machine itself and opens in your browser; only that machine can reach it, and the link it opens works once. Closing the tab stops it.
• One file, no runtime, no installer, about a megabyte per platform, for the same reason as the other tools here: it has to run on the machine that is available.

The result

The questions that used to be answered by hand — what is this, who started it, can I live without it, and how do I put it back — are answered in one place, with the reasoning shown and a way back for every change. A clean-up becomes something you can do carefully instead of something you avoid.

The boundary: a verdict is a judgement from rules, from what is installed and from what the program can measure, not a guarantee. It is there to slow you down at the right moments, and where it cannot tell it says so. It does not decide what you ought to run. The files are not code-signed, so Windows SmartScreen and macOS will warn the first time; the checksum on this page is how you know the file is the published one.

How far it has been tested: on Windows it has been used end to end on a real machine — listing, switching, creating, backing up, restoring and undoing. On Linux it was run read-only on two Debian 13 servers and agreed with systemctl on every unit, but creating and removing entries there has not yet been exercised on a real machine. The macOS build has not yet been run on a Mac. If you try it on either and something is wrong, say so in the comments below.