Windows 7: Having a Taskbar app start up in 7?

Hi all,



I'm stumped on a small problem...

I have a small taskbar app that I would like to start up on boot and show up in the taskbar area. It does reside in the Notification area, and even though I have selected "Show Icon and Notifications," it still won't start and show after boot. I have to manually start it each time.

In XP, I can open the taskbar utility on the Start menu and add the app so it will start up in the taskbar area on boot. But I can't figure out how to do that in Windows 7... I have even tried pinning it to the start menu, but still have to start it up each time - it won't start automatically on boot.

BTW, the app is called Moon Phase...

Can someone give me a heads-up on this seemingly simple problem?

Thanks, Noels

I have never tried this before, but you can try dragging the program into C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\Startup.

You could also open up a copy of regedit, and navigate to HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run.

Right click in an empty space in the right pane, and select Create New>String Value. Name it what you want, and then right-click on it and select Modify. Then point it to the path.

For example, to run a program from my desktop, I would try "C:\Users\Jonathan\Desktop\programname.exe". Include the quotes.

Disclaimer: I have not tried either of these. I have no idea if they will work or not.

The easiest way to do this is to copy and paste a Moon Phase shortcut into the startup folder in the Start Menu on your account. Any application (or shortcut to an application) is automatically opened after login when it is in this folder.

Oli

EDIT: Jonathon's way to quick for me, good work.

The startup folder you find if you type shell:startup into Start/search and hit Enter. Then drag the shortcut into the folder as they said and close the folder.

You could start it from the Task Scheduler as well.
Brink has a good tut here: Task Scheduler - Create New Task

~Lordbob

Hi Folks,

Sorry to take so long responding - my wife has been sick and I had to shut down...

After several attempts, I finally was able to get the Moon Phase shortcut into the start up folder and set Properties/Compatibility as Windows 95. I checked msconfig, and it is there and apparently starting up, BUT, after several restarts, it still will not show up in the taskbar area. Turns out there are 2 Moon Phase icons in the notification area and I can't seem to get rid of one - so there may be a conflict there...

I think I'll try removing all instances of the app and start all over. I'll keep you up on the results, but it may be later today - we're off to the Doctor's office.

Thanks so much to all of you and for bearing with my dragging this out. I thought I would be finished by now

Noels

try removing it from the taskbar and then letting it start on boot, once its started pin the running instance to the taskbar, it sounds like 7 is treating them as seperate instances of the application

severedsolo,

How do I remove the icons from the taskbar? The 2 Moon icons are selected as "Show icons and notification" but still they don't show up, and I can't figure out how to delete them...

Thanks for your help, Noels

by taskbar... do you mean the notification area? (the bit you see when you click the ringed bit on my screenshot) or the taskbar? which is where your pinned/running apps go. because it sounds to me like your describing the notification area, perhaps it would be easier if you screenshot what you mean

What you could do is hide the icon.

It won't get rid of it completely, but you would have to click the arrow to show it.