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Control the StartUp Menu Sequence

I want to keep some programs in my StartUp menu from starting until others have finished loading. How can I control the sequence of commands in the Start, Programs, StartUp menu?

Kelvin D. Luong, Garden Grove, California

Because StartUp loads everything at once, the biggest program will be last to finish no matter the preset order; there's no way to change the order in the StartUp menu itself. Here are two solutions: One creates a batch file; the other costs $20.

First, the batch-file method: Start by launching Notepad, then select Start, Run, type c:\windows\start menu\programs\startup, and press Enter to show the contents of your StartUp menu in a folder window.

Right-click the shortcut for the program you want to load first and select Properties. Make sure that the Shortcut tab is selected in the Properties dialog box (it should be the default selection), and that the contents of the Target field are highlighted. Press Ctrl-C to copy the contents to the clipboard, then press Esc to close the dialog box. In Notepad, press Ctrl-V to insert the command as the first line of the batch file, then press Enter.

If you want a program to run undisturbed until it finishes and closes, add the command start /w to the beginning of the line. For instance, to make sure that nothing else is running while ScanDisk automatically checks your hard drive, use the command start /w scandskw.exe c: /n (don't forget to put a space before each forward slash). Repeat the process for every icon in the menu, giving each its own line in the batch file.

If you simply want to give a program enough time to load before the next one starts, insert a pause: Place the command choice /n /t:y,xx--where xx is the number of seconds (such as choice /n /t:y,30 for a 30-second pause)--on a line by itself between the other two commands. This command will pause the system until you indicate that you want to proceed, or for 30 seconds if it receives no response.

On the bottom of the batch file, start a new line and enter the command cls. Make sure there is nothing--not even a blank line--after it. Save it as c:\windows\start menu\programs\startup\startup.bat. Open the file, and if it works, remove all other icons from your StartUp folder.

The $20 solution is Cool Bay Software's Auto Start Manager shareware, which lets you drag shortcuts from the StartUp menu (or elsewhere) into the program, set program load order, and select all sorts of options. Delay a program's execution by seconds or days, launch it only with a certain hardware configuration or on particular days of the week, or make one program wait until its predecessor is done loading. You can get Auto Start Manager from our Downloads library.