Does anyone know of a freeware program that will allow starting of multiple programs? I want my Virusscan and my ZoneAlarm to start up only when I start my browser. Does anyone know how to do this? Thank you in advance.

I'm pretty sure you can do something like this using a batch file. Unfortunately, I'm not very good at writing batch files or I would give you an example.

This is a mildly interesting problem, not in its direct form as what you posted but in its reverse form. Let me slightly modify it because I am not sure what virusscan you are using. [1] Direct problem : Launch IExplore and ZoneAlarm together This is simple because they are both 32-bit applications. The following dull batch file will do. ::----Launch.bat------- @echo off "C:\Program Files\Internet Explorer\IEXPLORE.exe" "C:\Program Files\Zone Labs\ZoneAlarm\zonealarm.exe" ::----end--------------- [2] Inverse Problem : Close out Iexplore and ZoneAlarm together Here it is a very good and instructive example of how thing of similar nature can be done with minimal appeal to specially written programs staying as close to standard utilities provided by windows package as possible. But, to do it neatly in balance, you do need some small special dos utility to supplement DOS (win version). Utilities needed : [2.1] tlist.exe and kill.exe from windows resources kit. [2.2] change.exe - a small utility free downloadable from simtelnet/dos/textutil change17.zip. Use this utility is only for pragmatic purpose. When referring to them and other intermediate files in the following batch, you have to supplement necessary paths pointing to them. ::------closeout.bat------------- :: This batch uses tlist.exe, kill.exe & change.exe, :: supposed to be located in the starting dir of the batch. @echo off tlist>}{.txt find /i "iexplore"}thread{.bat find /i "zonealarm" >}thread{.bat change }thread{.bat "-" "kill -" call }thread{.bat del }thread{.bat del }{.txt ::-------end---------------------- I leave you to figure out the significance of each line. Hope you like it.

Correction : Have forgotten the filtering of this site on the [less/larger than] symbols. The two "find /i" lines should be read as : find /i "iexplore" [less than] }{.txt > }thread{.bat find /i "zonealarm" [less than] }{.txt >> }thread{.bat

testing testing ... repeating response #3 find /i "iexplore" < }{.txt > }thread{.bat find /i "zonealarm" ⁢ }{.txt >> }thread{.bat

final form of testing testing... find /i "iexplore" < }{.txt > }thread{.bat find /i "zonealarm" < }{.txt >> }thread{.bat