On Tuesday, Lifehacker reader Edward wrote in with a query:“I’m looking for an application that runs on startup, detects any applications that have been added to the startup menu, then shuts itself down (to preserve memory). Is such an app possible?   Or, is there a way to run such a startup restorer just before shutting down to achieve the same results?   I know there are programs that stay resident and monitor changes, but this takes up memory and processor time.”

I threw the question to the readers, who’ve helpfully come up with a few suggestions. AussieRodney suggested r2 Studio’s Startup Delayer, saying while it wasn’t exactly what Edward had requested, ” it will certainly give you a very good heads up on what is starting in the background.”

Three readers also voted for Startup Monitor. Citizen D said, “The small memory footprint is more than worth it for the job it’s done for me for the past few years.”

Djurbino also suggested Startup Monitor and also commented “Spybot S&D also has a similar real-time startup protection feature (though I don’t think it’s enabled by default).”

Thanks for the suggestions, guys!