Author: Ernesto De Spirito

There are a few programs installed on my system that launch when Windows starts, 
but don't have shortcuts in my Startup folder. Is there some trick that I'm missing 
here?

Answer:

Solve 1:

Are you kiddin'? That capability isn't clearly documented anywhere? Okay, okay, 
enough of the facetiousness... In actuality, it is a bit of a trick to get a 
program to do this (primarily because it's not something that's very 
well-documented), but it's not trickery of any sort that would prevent you from 
being able to program this yourself. All it involves is writing to one of two paths 
in the Windows registry under the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE root key:

Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\RunOnce 
-or-
Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run

As you've probably surmised, writing an entry to the "RunOnce" key will make it so 
your program only launches after the next shutdown and startup of Windows. Writing 
an entry to the "Run" key will make your program launch each time Windows is 
started.

Here's a quick procedure that'll do either action for you. We'll discuss it after I 
list the code:
1   
2   {=====================================================================
3    The following procedure instructs Windows at startup to execute your
4    program. Here's a summary of the formal params:
5   
6    WindowTitle  : Title of the Window of your program. Note that this is
7                   actually a superfluous parameter, and can be any value
8                   you want. But for convention's sake, and because the
9                   registry entry expects a value, you have to provide it.
10  
11   CommandLn    : This is the fully qualified path and executable name of
12                  your program (e.g. 'C:\MyProgams\MyProgam.exe.' If you
13                  have any command line parameters, you include them in
14                  this string as well.
15  
16   RunOnlyOnce  : Setting this to true makes the program only launch just
17                  once after you write to the registry. Once it's launched,
18                  Windows will delete its entry from the Run path in the
19                  registry. Set it to False if you want your program to
20                  always launch when Windows starts up.
21   =====================================================================}
22  
23  procedure RunOnStartup(WindowTitle,
24    CommandLn: string;
25    RunOnlyOnce: Boolean);
26  var
27    RegIniFile: TRegIniFile;
28  begin
29    RegIniFile := TRegIniFile.Create('');
30    with RegIniFile do
31    begin
32      RootKey := HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE;
33      if RunOnlyOnce then
34        RegIniFile.WriteString('Software\Microsoft\Windows\' +
35          'CurrentVersion\RunOnce'#0,
36          WindowTitle, CommandLn)
37      else
38        RegIniFile.WriteString('Software\Microsoft\Windows\' +
39          'CurrentVersion\Run'#0,
40          WindowTitle, CommandLn);
41      Free;
42    end;
43  end;


Notice that the RegIniFile instance variable above is of type TRegIniFile, as 
opposed to TRegistry. TRegIniFile is a descendant class of TRegistry and inherits 
all its methods and properties. And in addition to all that, it adds comparable 
methods of TIniFile, the tried and true Windows 3.1 class. This allows us to treat 
the registry like an INI file, which is far easier to work with than accessing the 
registry through TRegistry. This is one of the things I just love about Delphi! 
Want to make it simple? Subclass and extend a class' functionality!

Employing the Procedure

So where should you employ this? The most likely place is to use the procedure with 
system tray applications that you always want to run when Windows starts up. 
Personally, I make a call to the function in the OnClose  event of the main form of 
my application. That way, I always know that even if Windows is shutdown, my 
program will make sure that its Run or RunOnce entry is written to the Registry.

Another place you might want to use this procedure is with readme or help files 
that accompany a program that you install on another computer, ala Microsoft 
Intellipoint Mouse help...


Solve 2:

44  uses Registry;
45  
46  procedure SetAutoStart(AppName, AppTitle: string; registerit: boolean);
47  const
48    RegKey = '\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run';
49    // or: RegKey = '\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\RunOnce';
50  var
51    Registry: TRegistry;
52  begin
53    Registry := TRegistry.Create;
54    try
55      Registry.RootKey := HKEY_CURRENT_USER;
56      if Registry.OpenKey(RegKey, False) then
57      begin
58        if registerit = false then
59          Registry.DeleteValue(AppTitle)
60        else
61          Registry.WriteString(AppTitle, AppName);
62      end;
63    finally
64      Registry.Free;
65    end;
66  end;
67  
68  procedure TForm1.Button1Click(Sender: TObject);
69  begin
70    SetAutoStart('Your Application Title', ParamStr(0), false);
71  end;



Solve 3:

One way is placing a direct access to the application in the Startup folder of 
Windows Start Menu. Alternatively, you can add a value under the appropriate key in 
the Windows Registry, as shown below: 

72  procedure TForm1.Button1Click(Sender: TObject);
73  begin
74    SetRegistryData(HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE,
75      'Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run',
76      Application.Title, rdString, Application.ExeName);
77  end;


NOTE: SetRegistryData has been featured in the article "Accessing the Windows 
Registrydkb://312979072".

Instead of Application.Title you can write a string with a unique name for the application, and instead of Application.ExeName you can write the full path name of the application (as well as its command-line parameters if they are needed).