Autoruns vs iotop

Autoruns shows programs and drivers configured to run during Windows boot, login, or when certain built-in Windows applications start. It reports startup items from locations such as the Startup folder, Registry keys, Explorer extensions, services, scheduled tasks, and Winlogon entries. Users can hide signed Microsoft entries to focus on third-party items, inspect startup images configured for other accounts, and disable an entry or delete its configuration. Scan options include signature verification and VirusTotal hash checks; submitting files not previously scanned requires the upload option, and VirusTotal features require accepting its terms. The download includes Autorunsc, a command-line version that can output CSV or tab-delimited data, verify signatures, and scan an offline Windows system. The Autoruns and Autorunsc download is listed as 3 MB, and Microsoft offers a Sysinternals Live option. Autoruns costs nothing, with no limit on installation or use on devices owned or supported by the user, but no redistribution license. Microsoft says Sysinternals tools are provided as is without official support and points users to a community forum.

iotop is a free Linux program that identifies processes generating high input/output activity and lists them by I/O usage. The display can show accumulated I/O or bandwidth, with optional read, write, swap-in and I/O-percentage columns. Monitoring can target selected process IDs or users, or show processes and threads across the machine. Interactive and batch modes support iteration counts, configurable delays and timestamps in batch output. Command-line filters narrow processes by TID or command using a regular expression. Installation guidance covers Debian-derived distributions, Fedora, CentOS/RHEL, Void, Arch and Alpine Linux; source builds use make after development dependencies are installed. The project is GPL-2.0+ licensed, but installation and use require root access. Version 1.31 is listed as the latest release. Its tag has a verified committer signature, although the signing key has expired.