Hello,

I guess your talking ODM - Object Desktop Manager

When it gets an update you would normally see a pop up showing the update .

You can always check your account page for any updates .

AzDude
Stardock Community Assistant

The answer to your Title question is "No".   Each of the individual apps (Curtains, Start10/11, Windowblinds, etc.) have executables that run independently.  ODM does not need to be running for any of them to be used.  ODM can (for some) be a convenient way to track the versions of the individual apps & keep them up to date, but that can be done separately through your store.stardock.com login as well.

Thanks for the clarifications so far. Um, I'd like to probe a little bit more about how ODM works. I have the software setting "launch on windows startup" unchecked, but it sometimes pops up in my system anyhow. What's happening? Do OD components like Start11 call the manager themselves? Is the manager memory resident despite that setting?

That's what I'm getting at. From my point of view, the app seems to be doing things without me giving it the ok and I'd like to get a better sense of how it's working so that, for example, I'm not on a work call and the manager pops up during a shared-screen meeting... which is a little awkward. I don't really have to uninstall the manager if I know what it's doing and how I can control it.

Some (perhaps many) people have had unusual or odd experiences with ODM, apparently unique to their particular rig or setup.  Inasmuch as ODM is entirely superfluous to the use of the individual apps in Object Desktop, if I were you I would simply uninstall ODM.  To me (just my personal opinion) it's not worth the effort to try to 'make it behave' just for the sake of 'making it behave'.  I've been a user of Object Desktop apps for 20 years and have never needed or used ODM (must admit I did use its predecessor, Stardock Central, for a while but it also had issues).  Some people find it works flawlessly and consider it a big help, but when it doesn't...

.02, YMMV

Roger that. Thanks for the advice.