How to start a program at boot up?

I would like to have Filemon.exe run immediately as Windows starts.
Can someone please tell me how to do this? Thanks.

Create a shortcut for it, then copy and paste the shortcut into the
startup folder.

There are a few ways, but try this.

Put a shortcut icon on the Desktop. Grab the icon with the cursor and left
mouse key and without letting up, drag it to the Start Button, All Programs
and finally to the Startup program and let go.

That should do it. Reboot and check it.

Add the path of the exe to the registry

HKLM->Software->Microsoft->Windows->Run

The easiest way to do this is simply to put a shortcut to each program
you want to start automatically in the Startup folder.

Thank you to all who posted. I knew it had something to do with
"Startup". It's working now.

[dbell5]

Is it possible to add a program that runs in the background, *before* any user logs in to Windows?

Which Windows XP version are you using?

You could accomplish this with a computer startup script or you can have
the program run as a service.

http://www.microsoft.com/resources/d....mspx?mfr=true
Microsoft Windows XP - Assign computer startup scripts

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/137890
How To Create a User-Defined Service

The target system is running Windos XP Pro, Version 2002, S.P. 3

It sounds like a startup script is what I need.
Basically, I have two small console (non-GUI) programs I want to run as
servers that can be connected to from another PC. The applications work now,
but I have to either start them manually or they can run from shortcuts in
the Start > Programs > Startup folder. Either way, it requires a user to log
in to Windows firat.

It looks like I can do the script installation according to the Microsoft
link you sent, but I am stuck on the first directive"
"1. Open the Group Policy snap-in."
What is *that*?

Yes, I think that using a machine startup script is the best way to go
about this. To open the Group Policy snap-in enter gpedit.msc in the
Start menu Run box.

Thanks - and I finally scrolled down alittle farther in the Microsoft doc
and found the "Related Topics"!

One more: Does the startup script need to be an actual script (batch file,
presumably?), or can I simply install the two executables as separate
entries?

Well, of course!
Fortunately, this will all end up running on a closed network, anyway...

It can be a script, batch file, shortcut or the actual path to the
executables. By the way, the application will run under the System
account so don't expect to see the application running or minimized to
the Taskbar when the user logs on and don't expect to be able to
interact with the application when it is running under the System
account. But if you look in the Task Manager you will see it as a
running process under the System account. If you must you can use the
AT command, or PSExec or Assarbad's RUNasSYS to run under guise of the
System account, this could allow you to interact with the running
application but I haven't actually tested this.

I just tried this and even when running under the system account I could
not interact with the running process started via the startup script.

No need to interact with the application once it's running.
There is no console activity (except for some unlikely failure reports), and
any "expected" problems or verbose messages get logged to a text file.

However, I have run into a problem installing the two applications:
Apparently, only the first one added to the Group Policy runs on startup.
Checking processes in Task Manager, I only see the first one.
That one later encountered a network error and stopped.
When I looked in Task Manager again, I saw the second one running.
Looks like they are serial, not concurrent.

I would try it with two separate batch files. If need be use the /wait
switch with the start command:

start "" /wait "C:\Program Files\Program Folder\Program.exe"

Well, I've tried several combinations of single and multiple batch files,
with and without the /wait.
Best I've gotten is the first of two batch files launches its .exe, and the
second never starts up.
Incidentally, the DOS shell window for the one running application
displays, floating over the Windows logon screen.
Logging in (at least, using Remote Desktop) does not terminate the
application.

One solution may be to start a single applicatin, which in turn spawns two
child processes, without wait.

Maybe installing as services is the better answer. I'll look into that
further...

That's what I was thinking, if it isn't a fully installed application, run it as a NT
Service.

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/251192