Solved How do I set up and use RunOnce?

[Funky Munky]

Hello all.

When I do a fresh install of Windows XP, Vista, 7, etc. there are certain programs that I install through batch files after the final reboot.

I cannot combine them into one batch file because each program needs to reboot to finish the installation, and you can't continue the batch after a reboot.

Recently, I started reading about the RunOnce feature.

Before I read deeper into it, I was wondering if it could be applied to run my multiple batch files with a reboot in between.

If I read it correctly, I should be able to write the next RunOnce routine into the registry before the batch file reboots.

Or is there a better way to use this feature?

Thanks.

 

[RonWesley]

The Windows registry includes the following two keys -

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\RunOnce
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\RunOnce

 

[Funky Munky]

Thanks for the quick reply but those are the same 2 lines that I got from the Microsoft one page explanation.

I miss the days of assembler language / dos / gwbasic, when every command was explained in so much detail it made you want to puke.

 

[Ztruker]

Google yields lots of hits on this: How do I set up and use RunOnce

 

[MilesAhead]

You can download my RunItOnce utility from my page:
Miles Ahead's Windows Downloads

To use it in a batch file just specify the full path to the exe,cmd or bat file on the command line. See the included Readme.txt file for particulars.

Edit: Note that RunItOnce launched programs actually run before the login prompt, so they should not pop up any dialog boxes or whatnot. Just do tasks like delete files before they are in use by the system etc..

 

[Funky Munky]

Google yields lots of hits on this: How do I set up and use RunOnce

thanks, but I did that before i made this thread and the results were pretty useless.

 

[Funky Munky]

You can download my RunItOnce utility from my page:
Miles Ahead's Windows Downloads

To use it in a batch file just specify the full path to the exe,cmd or bat file on the command line. See the included Readme.txt file for particulars.

Edit: Note that RunItOnce launched programs actually run before the login prompt, so they should not pop up any dialog boxes or whatnot. Just do tasks like delete files before they are in use by the system etc..

thanks also, but i wanted something that I could just add to my batch file.

 

[Funky Munky]

thanks to all for your helpful replies.

I posted this question in numerous forums and finally got it to work.

I just added this line to my batch file before the reboot line

reg add HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\RunOnce /v Install /t REG_SZ /d "C:\installing\2.bat"

cheers.