Malware is the major tool of cyber crime. New mechanisms of spying, hacking and other malicious activities are being introduced everyday in malwares. Antimalware products use several different tools to detection malware or malicious activities.  But still it is not recommendd to rely on a single product. Layered security approach is the most recommended setup today. Autorun Angel from NictaTech Software is a little tool that checks installed startup items, drivers and other autorun related entries with its database for good or bad ratings. It uploads new files to its server for analysis after requiring user permission. Unlike traditional antimalware approach of blacklisting it uses whitelisting meechanism to secure the autorun area of a PC because most malware tends to run at Windows logon. According to developers website

Autorun Angel is a tool for controlling Windows startup sections in order to provide security for your computer. Angel allows you to control software, drivers and various components launched automatically. Autorun Angel connects to Angel Cloud Engine in real time.

About NictaTech Software

NictaTech Software is known for its antimalware product Digital Patrol. Autorun Angel is blessed with Anti-Virus Cloud Engine (ACE) from NictaTech.
Anti-Virus Cloud Engine (ACE) — is an automated files recognition cloud-based security service (also known as software-as-a-service «SaaS» or hosted security) are a valuable enhancement to your own resources for blocking of Internet threats. ACE can effectively block malicious files, web vulnerabilities and Internet threats.

Autorun Angel – Download and Installation

• Autorun Angel can be downloaded from its product page. The current version 1.0.31 (12 Sep 2012) can be downloaded from the following link.

www.nictasoft.com/ftp/aa10.exe

• Installation clan and very fast. Administrative rights are needed for installing the product. The software is launched at the end of installation.
• Autorun Angel is compatible with Windows 95, 98, ME, NT4, 2000, XP, 2003, Vista, 2008, 7, both 32 & 64 bit versions.

Autorun Angel Features

• The main executable of Autorun Angel is CA.exe. After launching the software for the first time, you may see an outgoing connection alert from your firewall for CA.exe. Please allow it for proper functioning of the product.
• Upon launching the GUI, Autorun Angel will start loading the list of autorun programs, which will complete within seconds.

Autorun Angel: All Autorun Entries

• Next, you will have to click on the Scan button to start checking the listed entries with the ACE cloud database.

Autorun Angel: Scanning with Cloud

• Scanning will take a minute or two. Autorun Angel will hide the safe entries by default. Only malicious and unknown entries will be shown.

Autorun Angel: Scan Result

• If you want to check the safety of the unknown files, select those and click on Send unknown for analysis. Autorun Angel will send those files to their server in an encrypted form. Uploading will take time depending on the size of the files to be uploaded and your uploading speed.

Autorun Angel: Submitting Unknown Files

• Please scan you system again after some days to see the results of the submitted files.
• The resource usage or Autorun Angel is minimal at idle time and during file submit. During scan it consumes moderate system resource.

Autorun Angel – Idle Time resource Usage

Autorun Angel – Submission Time Resource Usage

Autorun Angel – Scan Time Resource Usage

My Verdict

I use Autorun Angel for occasional checking of the autorun entries. I find it useful because of the whitelisting approach. All entries are manually checked and so the chance of false decision is almost null. Often they will take time to update the database. So, it is preferred to scan again after a week.
Please note that Autorun Angel is not a malware cleaner. It’s just a tool to rate your system’s autorun entries with its whitelist engine with the bonus of its Cloud Database. If your system is infected, make sure to scan your system with blacklist scanners like Emsisoft Emergency Kit, Microsoft Safety Scanner, Norman Malware Cleaner, Panda Cloud Cleaner, F-Secure Easy Clean etc.
There is no official portable version of the software. You can make the portable version manually by copying CA.exe and mengine.dll from its installation folder [C:Program Files (x86)Autorun Angel].