Project Description

Bootretarder lets the Windows, KDE and GNOME users to manage the applications they load at startup.

It works in a very simple way. It gets the program loaded at startup, and prompts the user to manage them or not. It also asks for the interval between the start of two programs. Then, it moves the programs selected by the user from the default autostart location (Registry in Windows, autostart dir in KDE and GNOME) to the bootretarder startup location (in Windows, a configuration file; and in KDE and GNOME, a directory), and it copies itself to the default autostart location. When Bootretarder is loaded at startup, it starts the programs in its autostart location waiting a time interval between each start.

The first version I made, the Windows one, and  in C++ , was the most problematic to deploy because of the part of the code which had to deal with the Registry. The WinAPI is not very clear or easy, so I faced many errors: type casting, wrong parameters, memory errors because of pointers defined in typenames and pointed again, the program not going well because of some unknown error... But finally, I resolved all of these errors and I get Bootretarder working perfectly.

The Linux version was easiest. It is written in bash, and since the autostart location is a directory, I could get the programs without complications, with a simple 'ls' command. Also copying bootretarder to the autostart location was easy. The only problem with this version is that it has a bug that I've completely unable to resolve. If a file in the autostart dir contains spaces, Bootretarder treats it like two different files. An example: if there is a file in the autostart dir called "start this", Bootretarder will think there are two files, "start" and "this".

Inspiration

I was wondering if I could create an useful, simple application. Then, the idea of Bootretarder came to me. I was starting my Windows and waiting all the programs to finish loading, when I though "Hey, it would be wonderful it I could start all of this programs separetely, and not all of them at the same time. Hmmm, I think I can do it".

I started programming and finished Bootretarder for Windows. I uploaded it to sourceforge and sended to softpedia.

After a while, I saw a link to this page in the spanish Slashdot, Barrapunto, and I made the Linux version.

Who will enjoy this the most?

All the users who need to have a lot of programs started at boot, like mail, IM, rss feed, etc; but don't want to wait a long time to have its PC ready to work.

The Project

Bootretarder is hosted in sourceforge: bootretarder.sourceforge.net.

You can download the Windows and Linux versions from here

Screenshot from the Windows version, the linux one is very likely.

A video to show how to run it (Windows version) (enable captions if they're disabled)