Secunia

Evermore,

Secunia can certainly be run as an on-demand scanner only.

I happen to have a very old version (1.5.x) on this machine, which has a SETTINGS tab, under which there is a box to check [or UNcheck] for "Start the Secunia PSI on boot".

I know the newer versions also have such an option, but without it in front of me, I can't be more specific.   Hopefully one of the other regulars will be able to say more.

I have version 3.  If you look near the bottom of this program you will see Settings. Click on Settings and then untic "Start on Boot."

Evermore:

No, you are not defeating the use of the program by using it as an on-demand scanner only. That is the way I use it on my Windows XP Media Center system/SP3 system also. There is no need to have it load at every start-up. Just run it on-demand on a regular basis as part of routine maintenance (for me about once a week).

Evermore wrote:  "Am I defeating the use of the program?"

In terms of using it specifically as an on-demand scanner --- to advise you which of your programs are in need of a security update, so that you may then decide/choose to manually update some/all of those programs --- you are not defeating the program's purpose.

However, versions 2 and 3 introduced various levels of automatic updating capabilities [which were NOT present in version 1.x].   If you want (and have enabled) Secunia to automatically apply security updates to any programs it finds, then yes, by not allowing Secunia to automatically start-up with windows, you are defeating the automatic "behind the scenes" updating that it can do.  

I believe you can also arrange for a "hybrid" setup:   you can disable auto-startup, so that it will run only on-demand, but by having auto-updates enabled, it won't ask you for confirmation when the manual scan finds something... it will automatically update it then.