How do I delay the launch of a program

[elnino]

For security reasons - I need my firewall to be set up correctly before any program that uses the internet is started - I would like to delay the launch of any program by, say 50 seconds. Do note that I would like to apply this policy to a program that is manually launched by the user - in my case, Google Chrome - and not to programs that come up at the startup - and for which I am already aware of solutions like Soluto . Can this be done under Windows 7 ? Additionally, I would be grateful if I could know how to restrict changes of this option to admin users only.

Thanks

 

[UsernameIssues]

Welcome to the Seven Forums.

Is this in a business setting? Is there a Domain Controller involved that allows the user to log on? If not, then perhaps it would work to have the the network adapter disabled each time that the computer is shutdown and that same network adapter enabled after a minute or so after booting.

What I have in mind would require a pair of scheduled tasks (with admin rights) and a pair of batch files that use NETSH to enable/disable the network adapter of interest.

 

[Layback Bear]

To my understanding by default your Firewall and Anti Virus are the first programs to start.

 

[elnino]

Thank you all for your replies.

To make things clear, I am using a filtering software at home from Blue Coat. It's called K9 Web Protection. I have come to the conclusion that it is the best software of its kind thus far, but I also had to modify it - using software I won't mention here - so it could suit my needs better. These alterations affected the stability of the program, which now needs a few minutes to start - which were seconds before.

I am very much interested in the solution you - UsernameIssues - mention here and would really like you to tell me more about it. However, since enabling/disabling hardware material requires admin rights, I would like to make sure that this script starts correctly for a standard user - who would still not be able to disable this script anyhow. If this could solve my issue, I would be extremely grateful for such a prompt response.

 

[UsernameIssues]

When I wrote my reply, I was on a computer where I could not do much testing. I thought that there was a scheduled task trigger for computer shutdown. If the computer(s) that you are working with are able to make use of Group Policies (W7 Pro or higher), then this task is relatively simple.

Name a text file something like this...
shutdown-task.bat

Edit that file so that it contains this...

netsh interface set interface name="Local Area Connection" disabled

Place that file in this folder...
C:\Windows\System32\GroupPolicy\Machine\Scripts\Shutdown


Name a text file something like this...
startup-task.bat

Edit that file so that it contains this...

ping 127.0.0.1 -n 60
netsh interface set interface name="Local Area Connection" enabled

Place that file in this folder...
C:\Windows\System32\GroupPolicy\Machine\Scripts\Startup


Set these to run via the steps detailed here:
Run Scripts At Shutdown in Windows 7


In my testing, they run with admin privileges and the network interface will be enabled after the delay even if the computer is sitting at the log on screen.

 

[gregrocker]

In addition establish a Clean boot so that nothing starts with Win7 except your AV and firewall programs. The way to do this most thoroughly is in the Troubleshooting tutorial in my signature below.