Why is firefox launching 2 instances on startup?

[Etihtsarom]

So did any one have to deal with this previously?

I put firefox shortcut into the startup folder, and when windows start, firefox runs 2 separate windows. What's up with that? My google-fu didn't really help in this. Help me Sevenforums you're my only hope.

Also, taskmanager is Not running minimized to the tray even though the shortcut to it specifies that. Woahumwat?

 

[seekermeister]

Take the one out of the Startup folder and see if it still starts up on reboot. I suspect that it set itself to start itself, and you duplicated that.

 

[Etihtsarom]

Did that, it didn't start on reboot.

C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\_Programs_\Startup

This is where the startup folder is located. If the shortcut is removed from there, the program will not run on startup.
Is there another folder in which startup programs can be placed?

 

[seekermeister]

Download and install Autoruns:

Autoruns for Windows

With it you can locate all startup locations. You may also be able to use the Startup tab in msconfig, but it is not as complete. Normally, when I want to manually add a startup item, I right click Startup folder in the Start Menu to open it is a window and drop the shortcut there.

EDIT: One question...why do you even want Firefox to start with the OS?

 

[Etihtsarom]

That's what I do, drop shortcuts in that Startup folder.
I want firefox to autostart so I don't have to launch it. lol. I do use it every session.

 

[seekermeister]

As I use Opera every session, but I don't want it to autostart, because that would be just one more item to slow rebooting. A little patience to wait for it to start wouldn't hurt.

EDIT:With Firefox in the Startup folder, did you run Autoruns, and check for duplicate entries?

EDIT: Another program that you can use is StartupCPL:

http://www.mlin.net/StartupCPL.shtml

It is not as complete as Autoruns either, but easier to use.

 

[Etihtsarom]

Lemme reboot and see.

This is totally weird.

This is what's shown with Autorun. Notice that everything in there is duplicate: taskmanager, mycomputer, libraries, and winamp. But only firefox runs 2 instances.

And if I untick One of those 2 instances of firefox in autorun as shown on that attachment....No firefox on startup.

 

[seekermeister]

I think that I see the problem, there should not be a second folder called "_PROGRAMS_" in the file path. I'm not sure of the best way to solve that, but if it were me, I would copy/paste all of the files in _PROGRAMS_ to the Programs folder and delete the other.

 

[Etihtsarom]

Yeah that wasn't the problem. I think mucking around with the registry might be in order.

 

[Brink]

Hello Etihtsarom,

You might check the registry locations in METHOD FOUR of the tutorial below to see if you may have entries for it there.

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/1401-startup-programs-change.html

Hope this helps,
Shawn

 

[Etihtsarom]

Yeah, I deleted the shortcut and used those registry entries in that tutorial and that fixed it. Thnx Shawn. Any idea on the taskmanager thing? I've tried the same thing with shortcut and registry entry for task manager, but it still would not minimize to tray upon launch.

 

[Brink]

You're welcome.

You might see if you can set the Task Manager shortcut to Minimized in the Shortcut tab in Properties, and have that shortcut run at startup to see if that may work.

 

[Etihtsarom]

Thanks, I've already made sure of that, also checked the options: minimize on use, and hide when minimized. Those three things are originally the way to make task manager tuck away in the tray, but for some reason mine isn't doing that. It is a minor thing to just click "minimize" and send it to the tray on startup. Just curious if people have run into it. Let's leave this as it is, it's not important enough to pour our time into.

 

[seekermeister]

Have you tried this?

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/2110