Feb 14

Windows: Start programs minimized Posted on Thursday, February 14 2008

Having a bunch of windows open at startup can be pretty annoying. Some programs have the option to start minimized but not all. If it's that much of a hassle here's how you can start programs minimized.

Registry Method

You can edit startup items directly in the registry, go to start -> run -> regedit and go to

...then just append /MINIMIZED to any program listed on startup.

Setup a batch file method

First find out where the program is. Go to start -> run and type msconfig, then go to the startup tab. If you hadn't known about already it's good to uncheck unwanted programs that are in your startup. If it says you don't have msconfig, go to start -> programs -> and find the "startup" folder.

Find the programs you want to start minimized and grab their locations. Next make a batch file. Just go to notepad or any other text editor, save as, instead of *.txt select "All Files", and save as test.bat. If that's unclear watch my introduction to batch files tutorial. All you have to do is put "start /b /min" in front of every program location. The start command in dos lets you open a command as a separate process, the /b tells the command to be invisible, and the /min part tells it to start the process minimized. It that sounds confusing don't worry. Try this simple example.

test.bat

Double click test.bat and viola, notepad opened minimized. Just copy and paste the line with the different programs you want to open minized and put it in your startup folder.

Tags: start minimized, start dos command, minimize on startup, dont show window


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