Program start-up order

I'm running Win2K Pro. I have a few programs that open on start-up: Netscape Mail Notify, WeatherBug, and ZoneAlarm. Logically, ZA ought to start first, so that when the other two first connect to the Net, they will pass through ZA. Instead, Netscape Notify opens first, and it's a toss-up as to whether ZA or WeatherBug opens next. Is there a way to force ZoneAlarm to be the very first thing to open at start-up?

 

I downloaded and installed that program, and it started to do incomprehensible things to my registry, and annoy me with cryptic messages about security. I couldn't figure out how to use it to rearrange program start order. I wound up having to uninstall it, before it could really mess up my registry.

I've tried some of the registry hacks described on that page, but the programs in question keep putting themselves back where they think they belong. (I've got StartupCop, but that's not much use here.)

Any other suggestions?

 

Write a batch file to launch programs in the order you want. If you need a few seconds delay inbetween use sleep.exe

 

How do I do that, Angel71?

When I ran Win98, I had a little batch file that I used to do things like empty the TEMP directories, clean out my Netscape cache, etc. When I upgraded to Win2K, I tried to adapt the batch file (by changing the paths as appropriate), but it didn't work. I can't seem to get it to work. I know that there isn't really any "DOS" in Win2K; apparently the commands I used in the Win98 batch file don't work any more, or something.

So how do I write a batch file to load my startup programs in the order I want them?