EonBlue

NOTE:  For support, please post in the FSAutoStart forum located at http://kensalter.com/forum
FSAutoStart uses a concept called profiles. A profile consist of the services and programs you wish to stop and/or restart, plus the configuration to control what programs to auto start, defragment memory, etc. You can create different profiles for different programs or games. Each profile can be configured differently and are independent of each other.

There is online help in the app. You can hover your mouse over most objects, and a popup help window will appear. You can turn this off by selecting Tools->Program Options.

FSAutoStart comes with a default profile which is initially blank. This profile is called “fsautostart” and it is automatically selected when you start FSAutoStart (NOTE: this profile can be changed or copied, but not deleted.)

Creating a New Profile

You can use the default ‘fsautostart’ profile, or you can create new profiles. New profiles are created by selecting the menu option File->New. A window will appear asking if you want to create a blank profile, or a profile based on the currently selected profile.

Tip: Configure the ‘fsautostart’ profile as a template. Then, create new profiles based on this profile.

Selecting a Profile

To work with a profile you must select it. When you start FSAutoStart, the default ‘fsautostart’ profile is selected. To select another profile, simply click on its icon. You will notice the title bar of the main window will change indicating the selected profile name.
Configuring your profile

On the left side of the main window are four buttons: Services, Programs, Configure, and Start. The first three buttons allow you to configure your profile, and the Start button will start the FSAutoStart process with the selected profile. These buttons will be enabled when a profile has been selected.

Configuring Services

Configuring Services is only available on Windows 2000, XP, and 2003 operating systems. If you are running Windows 9x or ME, this button is disabled.

Click on the Services button to configure which services you wish to stop and restart. A window will appear showing a list of currently installed services. A help window will also appear that will show information about each service. As you move your mouse over a service, the Help window will change.

You will need to decide which services you wish to stop. The help window provides recommendations, and the FAQ also has information. Another great site for information about services is BlackViper.com.

There is a column called Action. Clicking in the row under this column will produce a drop down list of possible actions: No Action, Stop, and Stop and Restart.

You can filter out non-running services by clicking the Running button at the bottom of this window.

Once you have decided what services you wish to configure, click the Save button. The window will close and you will be back to the Main Window.

Configuring Programs

Click on the Programs button to configure which programs to Stop/Restart. A window will appear with a list of all programs that are either currently running or have been running in the past while FSAutoStart was in use. A Help window will also appear. As you move your mouse over each program, the help window will display any information that is embedded in the program’s executable file. This information is to help you figure out what each program is, who makes it, etc. Putting the module name in a Google search will also find plenty of information.

There is a column called Action. Clicking in the row under this column will produce a drop down list of possible actions: No Action, Stop, and Stop and Restart.

You can filter out non-running programs by clicking the Running button at the bottom of this window.

Once you have decided what programs you wish to Stop, click the Save button. The window will close and you will be back to the Main Window.

Configuring Profile

Click on the Configure button to bring up the Configure window. This will allow you to setup up other aspects of your profile, including which programs to automatically start after the main application has started.

Enter a profile description to provide details of what this profile is for. This is optional and can be left blank.

Application to Launch Options

“Path to App”: contains the full path to the program that you wish to start after shutting down services and programs. You can click the Browse button to search for the application. NOTE: the icon used for the profile on the main window and in shortcuts in extracted from the exe you specify here!

“Command Line”: contains any command line parameters that should be used when launching the main application. If you don’t know what this is, please leave it blank.

“Process Priority”: used to indicate what priority you want the main application to run.

“This is not the Main App”: used when the application indicated in the “Path to App” is not the main application, but another program which will launch the main application. If you click this button, another window will appear asking for the file name of the executable of the “real” application. FSAutoStart needs this information so that it can look for the real application after starting the application in “Path to App”.

“Delay before auto starting other programs”: used to indicate how long (in seconds) after starting the main application will FSAutoStart wait before starting any other programs you indicate.
Misc. Options

“Force Idle Tasks To Execute”: Setting this option will cause FSAutoStart to issue an OS command that will force tasks that run when the system is considered “idle” to execute before starting the main application. Examples of these tasks are file placement optimization, System Restore, etc. For more information, see the following Microsoft web site.

“Defragment Memory”: Setting this option will cause FSAutoStart to defragment memory after shutting down services and programs and before starting the main application. This option is useful to give the main application as much contiguous memory as possible.

“Pause before terminating”: Setting this option instructs FSAutoStart to pause after performing the batch process and wait for the user to press a key. This is useful if you wish to review the log information on the screen.

“Log Control Output”: Setting this option will cause all information written during the batch process to be written to a file. This file is called fsasctl_log.txt and is stored in the folder where you installed FSAutoStart. This is useful for debugging purposes.

“Shutdown/Restart after terminating”: Setting these options will cause FSAutoStart either Shutdown or Restart the computer after running the batch process.

“Do Not Launch Any App, Just Pause”: Setting this option will cause FSAutoStart to stop services and programs, then wait for the user to press a key. The user can then do whatever they want (launch other programs, etc.) When the user is ready, they can press a key and FSAutoStart will restart those services and programs that were marked for restart.

Auto Launch

Auto Launch allows you to tell FSAutoStart to start up programs after shutting down Services and Programs and after it has launched the main application. This useful for some games which use third party add-ons, like Microsoft Flight Simulator.

Click on Add to bring up an explorer window. Browse to where the program executable is and click OK. Another window will appear allowing you to set any command line options you wish, and the number of seconds to wait after launching this program before proceeding to the next. Click Save and you are done.

When you have finished with the Configuration, click Save. You will go back to the main window.

Start

Now you are ready to test your profile!

Select the profile you want to launch, then press the Start button.

Another way to launch profiles is to create a shortcut. You can do this by selecting the profile, then select File->Create Shortcut from the menu. A window will appear asking you where you want to place the shortcut. Select the folder (the desktop can be used also) and press OK. The shortcut will be created. You can then open the shortcut and launch the batch process (FSAutoStart does not have to be running for this to work!)

The FSAutoStart batch process will begin.