How to add a program to start automatically on Windows startup?

Some programs installed are set to start on Windows startup by default. For some, we may need to enable them manually. This may be ideal for programs which you need to use right after Windows startup. Such startup files can be software programs, or even Office documents such as Excel sheets, Word Documents etc. But too may startup items can slow down your computer so you need to enable only those required. See below how to manage Windows startup items.

Watch this short video tip how to check startup programs in Windows and how to add programs to start automatically on Windows Startup.

How to check, enable or disable startup programs on Windows?

If you would like to see the startup programs on Windows or you want to manage the startup programs on Windows, do the following.

• Press Windows Key+R and type "msconfig" (without quotes)
• Click on the "Startup" tab
• If you are on Windows 8 /10, then you will get a link to click for "Task Manager" instead.
• For Windows 8/10, you can access "Start Up" from "Task Manager" by right-clicking on the taskbar and selecting "Task manager"
• You can enable or disable programs from the "Startup" window.

How to add a program to start automatically on Windows startup?

To add a program to start automatically on Windows startup, do the following.

• First, find the location of the program executable file. Or if you have a shortcut on the desktop, you can use that.
• To find the location of the executable file of the program, you may do any of the following:
• Shortcut: Right-click on the shortcut, click on "Open File Location"
• Press Windows Key > type the name of the program > right-click > Click on "open file location"
• Both the above steps will open a Windows explorer window where the executable file is located.
• Create a shortcut of the program if not already there.
• Open any of the two locations and paste the shortcut of the program:
• For particular user:
  C:\Users\Username\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\StartupOR
  
  Windows Key + R > type "shell:startup" (without quotes)
• For all users:
  C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\StartUp
  OR
  
  Windows Key + R > type "shell:common startup" (without quotes)

//Note: You need to enable "Show hidden files and folders" from "Folder Options" to see "AppData" and "ProgramData" in the paths listed above.

• Restart Windows to test if the programs auto start.

So, in a nutshell, the steps required to enable programs to start automatically on Windows startup is to place a shortcut of the program in the "Startup" folder as described above.

To add Office documents such as Excel Sheet, MS Word File, or PDF or any other file for that matter, you just need to create a shortcut of the file required and place it in the folders fore-mentioned. The file will start on Windows startup.