Are startup items, services, and scheduled tasks the only things that run without my explicit involvement?

Question

On a virgin out-of-the-box Windows machine, and before making any Internet connection, if I wish to remove or disable any applications that might run without my explicit consent, is it sufficient to examine only the services and startup items in MSCONFIG, and the scheduled tasks in Task Scheduler, to identify all software that might run without me explicitly telling it to run?

Are there any other locations identifying or controlling automatic software execution on the box?

(Remember, this is for a new and unused machine, so I'm not asking about stealthy software that might be subsequently installed and try to hide it's location or invocation.)

Answer 1

Autoruns from Microsoft may be what you need. It should include all possible locations.

Answer 2

Add installations jobs to the list. Some viruses add themselves to startup install list. Remember the setups which need to reboot to PC to complete the rest of the setup at the beginning.