Raymond.CC Blog

I am always on the lookout for a good autorun manager tool which checks for automatic programs startup when Windows is booted up. A virus or any kind of malware is designed to stay running in the computer all the time, so it had to add itself to a startup location. During Windows 98 era, it was so easy to check if a computer has a virus or not because there were only a few places to check for startup programs. I can still remember that I only needed to check win.ini, system.ini, startup folder from Start Menu, and regedit Run value. I didn’t even need a software for that.

However in Windows XP, there are a lot of startup locations which I don’t think I can memorize them all and it’d be better if I have a tool does the job. Moreover, a lot of modern viruses blocks regedit and msconfig. I recently stumbled on an autorun manager called OSAM, which has support of virtually all known methods of automatic loading using the system registry or special folders and also a built-in online malware scanner to check for suspicious autostartup entries.


“OSAM” (Online Solutions Autorun Manager) is a powerful and reliable tool for controlling the ‘cleanliness’ of components and applications that are automatically loaded or started under certain conditions without user’s consent. OSAM provides an easy one-click way of obtaining detailed information about the components that are run automatically at the system start and can potentially affect its operation.

Basically, all types of malicious software that have been around for the last 7-10 years use various mechanisms of sticking to an infected system. With OSAM, you will be able to monitor and control these activities and, which is more important, eradicate the threat on your own.

Rootkits are one of the biggest threats for end user systems. This malicious software integrates into the system on a very low level and completely hides its presence. The user is often totally unaware that the computer is being controlled by hackers. But that’s not a problem: whether it’s a hidden start of a rootkit driver or other hidden keys, “OSAM” will detect any of these autorun variants.

OSAM’s built-in malware is able to check if the startup files on your computer are malicious or not by cross checking with their online malware database. If there are files that is not recognized by OSAM’s online malware database, you can easily submit the files to OSAM to have them analyzed for you.

OSAM also supports generation of two types of report files (text and HTML) with all autoload information. If you’re helping someone to troubleshoot a computer problem that is caused by virus or a bad software, you can ask him to run OSAM, save the report and send it to you for analysis.

OSAM is free and works in Microsoft Windows 2000, XP, 2003 and Vista. Windows 2008 and the 64bit of Windows is not yet fully supported and Online Solutions are working on it. There is a portable version of OSAM which require no installation which is good to carry around in your USB flash drive and another one that requires installation. The portable version of OSAM is another great addition to my list of virus removal tools.

[ Download OSAM 4.0 Portable | Setup ]