Gateway Extended Warranty Startup

I'm the owner of a new Gateway FX510 computer, complete with the latest Intel® Core™2 Duo Extreme Processor. I will write more about this new speedy Intel CPU but today I'm evaluating what junk comes pre-installed in the system Startup Program list.

Even though I had worked with Gateway from 1996 to 2004 I surprised myself with this purchase. Most of my friends at Gateway are gone after the company restructured and I expected my next purchase to be a Dell. Turns out Gateway offered the system I wanted and I’m optimistic that Gateway has reopened their US based support centers in South Dakota.

As expected, the Startup Programs list had its share of useless crap but not as much as I’ve cleaned out of recent Dell laptop purchases for family members. (More Info)

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The list above includes a few things I’ve added like WinPatrol and TiVo. It really isn’t a horrible list although a few items like Recguard and Reminder don’t even exist on the hard drive.  Very sloppy.

The real surprise for me was a program called Gateway Extended Warranty.  If you look at this program with WinPatrol you’ll see it was created by BillP Studios.  This was one of the last projects I did for Gateway although it’s not listed on my Gateway page.  I’m sure many will find it ironic considering my favorite program, WinPatrol, is designed to help you get rid of startup programs just like this one. 

Essentially, the Gateway Extended Warranty program runs on startup and checks how many days have gone by since you first opened your computer.  If it’s been near 60–90 ( I forget exactly) it will pop up a message letting you know and helping you to purchase an extended warranty.  If not, it just exits.

Leaving this program in your startup list won’t hurt your performance but it will slow down your boot time.  It won’t hurt my feelings if you remove it.  If however you want to be reminded that your warranty about to end,  its a handy application.