How to make a program autostart at startup?

Hope this isn't a real dumb question but I have a small cookie management program which I have to invoke manually after start up from my 'programs' list in XP Home.

Is there some way I can make this program automatically start up when Windows loads?

 

Not at all stupid.

There are a couple ways to do this, the not so hard and the harder.

Not so hard is:

Locate the executable file of the program you want to start and right click it. Select "Send to Desktop as Shortcut." Go to the Desktop, locate the shortcut you just made and hold the cursor on it while you press and hold the right mouse button. Drag the icon to the START button and keep holding the right mouse button down. When the Start menu open, drag the icon up to the All Programs text you see immediately above. Keep on holding the right mouse button down and drag the icon over to the Start Up line you will see on the menu. When the Start Up extended menu open drag the icon into that area and finally, release the right mouse button. Answer to "Move" the item here.

That's it.

The harder way is, make a shortcut to the program as before and move it into the C:\Documents and Settings\[your id]\Start Menu\Programs\Startup

Either way it's a cake walk. If you muff it up, I'm going to come back and edit my post, placing a comma after the word all in my opening line.

Cheers.

 

Use find to locate starup folder for the name you are logged in as.

Should be something like c:\Documents and settings\administrator\startmenu\programs\startup

Open that folder and drag the link that starts this program to it.

A link/shortcut not the actual program.

Mike

 

If you muff it up, I'm going to come back and edit my post, placing a comma after the word all in my opening line.

That won't be necessary, thankfully.....took the easy route which worked just fine. Thanks a million.

 

Another success story! You're my hero. You keep it up and you'll be in line for a promotion from beginner to expert!

btw, If you ever want it out of there, just right click on the line you just placed in the Start Up area and select Delete. Or you can select Cut and paste it somewhere else.

Cheers.

 

Zephyr ... if you're still listening....can you help me to tweak the positioning of the icon for this same program?

The icon (and program name) are currently at the bottom left of my screen, just to the right of 'start' . I can't seem to figure out how to get it moved to the right side of my screen where all the other icons reside along with the computer clock...

Any ideas?

 

You don't have much control over that as far as I know. Some programs have what is called a Systray Icon that they automatically place in the Systray (area at the right side of the Task Bar) while others do not. The "do nots" will instead place what you are seeing in the Task Bar area (center area of the bar). I think you'll have to learn to like it if you're going to run that little gem.

I'm assuming you didn't mean the Quick Launch toolbar since you could delete it from there by a mere right click and Delete.

 

I'm assuming you didn't mean the Quick Launch toolbar

Correct assumption. Thanks anyway for your help on this. I can live with it!