How to Add a Program to Startup (Windows Vista)

If you routinely find yourself opening up the same three programs every time you turn your computer on you can save some time and get to work (or play) quicker by adding your most used programs to Startup. Adding a program to Startup is very easy to do and once you do it the program will open up every time you turn your computer on.

Common programs to add to Startup are instant messaging applications,  email programs and web browsers; but you can add any program or document to start up and it will launch when you turn your computer on.

Here is a step by step guide to adding a new program to Startup in Windows Vista in just a few minutes.

First off you’ll want to click on the Start Menu located in the bottom left corner of your screen.

Next click on All Programs, this will provide you with a list of all the programs on your computer as well as access to the folder for Startup programs.

After clicking on All Programs scroll down until you see a folder called Startup. Once you have found the Startup folder right click on the name and choose open. This will open up the folder so that you can add programs to it in the next step. You should now see a folder with any current Startup programs in it.

To add new programs leave that window open and click on the Start Menu again. Find the program you want to add to Startup by scrolling through the list of all programs until you find what you’re looking for. In this example we will add Trillian, an Instant Messaging client, to our computer’s Startup folder by right clicking on it.

After right clicking on the program name choose copy from the choices as shown in the image above.

Now click back over to the Startup folder we opened in the first step. Right click in the open area of the folder and then choose “Paste Shortcut” from the menu as shown above.

That’s all there is too it. You can see where Trillian was added to the Startup folder in the image above and now every time this computer is turned on it will be ready to instant message without any additional clicks. To add additional programs just repeat the steps above, copying and then pasting as a shortcut for each additional program you want to open when you turn your computer on.