Granted Patent B2

US 9,697,009 · App. 14/661,685 · Granted Jul 4, 2017

Abstract

Claims (44)

1. A method comprising using a processor of a computer system to:

automatically generate a list of programs that auto-start on a computer system;

in response to the automatically generated list of programs, automatically compare the list of the programs that auto-start with a list of system-required programs and a list of used programs;

automatically identify a list of auto-start deactivation candidate programs that are not system-required and have not been used for a defined period of time;

consult a database comprising deactivation priorities for programs of the list of auto-start deactivation candidate programs;

deactivate, in order of their respective deactivation priorities identified by the consulting of the database comprising the deactivation priorities, one or more programs in the auto-start list of deactivation candidate programs to release one or more resources of the computer system operating under an operating system and to improve performance of the computer system;

monitor extension points to detect requests addressed to the deactivated one or more programs; and

in response to the monitoring extension points, reactivate the deactivated one or more programs.

2. The method of claim 1 , further comprising: releasing computer resources that have been used by the deactivated one or more programs.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein the one or more deactivated programs remain deactivated until an actual performance of the computer system improves by a threshold level.

4. The method of claim 1 , further comprising at least one of:

determining a list of programs installed on the computer system; or

searching relevant extension points of the computer system for registered entries.

5. The method according to claim 4 , wherein the relevant extension points comprise at least one of:

an auto start section of the operating system's registry;

auto start folders in the operating system's start menu;

the operating system's services; and

a scheduled tasks function.

6. The method of claim 1 , wherein said automatically generate a list of programs that auto-start comprises: respectively assigning the registered entries at the relevant extension points to the list of programs installed on the computer system.

7. The method according to claim 6 , wherein the respectively assigning the registered entries comprises at least one of:

querying a local operating system's installer databases;

reading out uninstall keys of the local operating system's registry; or

querying version information blocks of all relevant executable files according to a product name and a manufacturer's name.

8. The method according to claim 1 , further comprising determining a list of programs installed on the computer system by performing at least one of:

querying the operating system of the computer system; or

analyzing uninstall information.

9. The method according to claim 1 , further comprising: reactivating a deactivated program before performing an uninstall function for the deactivated program.

10. The method according to claim 1 , further comprising: caching parameters that are to be passed to one of the deactivated programs; reactivating the deactivated program; and passing the parameters to the reactivated program.

11. The method according to claim 1 , further comprising: generating the list of system-required programs by at least one of (i) compiling a list of known system-required programs and (ii) extracting dependency information from the computer system.

12. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the deactivating is initiated by a user or initiated automatically.

13. The method according to claim 12 , further comprising: providing visualized information to the user regarding effects of the deactivating on the performance of the computer system.

14. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the automatically identifying the list of deactivation candidate programs comprises:

identifying a list of programs that have not been used for a defined number of days;

identifying the list of system-required programs; and

identifying a user-defined list of programs not to be deactivated.

15. A computer system, comprising:

at least one processor;

a memory containing instructions that, when executed, cause the at least one processor to:

automatically generate a list of programs that auto-start on the computer system;

in response to the automatically generated list of programs, automatically compare the list of the programs that auto-start with a list of system-required programs and a list of used programs;

automatically identify a list of auto-start deactivation candidate programs that are not system-required and have not been used for a defined period of time; consult a database comprising deactivation priorities for programs of the list of auto-start deactivation candidate programs;

deactivate, in order of their respective deactivation priorities identified by the consulting of the database comprising the deactivation priorities, one or more programs in the list of auto-start deactivation candidate programs to release one or more resources of the computer system operating under an operating system and to improve performance of the computer system;

monitor extension points to detect requests addressed to the deactivated one or more programs; and

in response to the monitoring extension points, reactivate the deactivated one or more programs.

Assignments (14)