| Microsoft Windows provides several
ways to force programs to load in a specific order at startup.
One technique involves using the Task Scheduler program that
comes with Windows. Another technique is to write a small
VBScript program to do the job and then putting the VBScript
in the Startup folder. Another technique involves adding
entries to the registry under the key:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run.
All of the above techniques will work however for most PC users,
they are a little more complex than is really necessary.
Perhaps the quickest and easiest way to accomplish the job
is to create a simple batch file that contains the command
lines for each program that you want to launch in the order
that you want to launch them. You could then put a shortcut
to the batch file in your startup folder. A batch file is
just a simple text file that has been saved with the filename
extension ".BAT" and you can use any text editor
including the Notepad program that comes with Windows to
create or edit batch files.
For example, suppose that you want to launch TCPCom.Exe
first and then pause the batch file for 15 seconds to give
TCP/Com time to load and then launch WinWedge.exe.
You could create a batch file using the Notepad program containing
the following 4 lines:
CD "C:\Program Files\WinWedge Pro"
TCPCom.exe
REM | CHOICE /C:AB /T:A,15 > NUL
WinWedge.exe MyConfig.SW3
The first line above changes the default file folder to the
WinWedge Pro folder.
The next line launches TCP/Com.
The third line uses the batch file command "CHOICE" to
force the batch file to pause for 15 seconds. The CHOICE
command is a special batch file command that waits for the
user to press one of several keystroke choices however it
also has a "Timeout" option that automatically
causes a specific choice to be selected if no user input
is detected for a specified number of seconds. This is the
trick that is providing the delay in the above batch file.
In this case we are not actually waiting for the user to
type anything and instead we are simply using the timeout
option in the CHOICE command to provide a delay between the
other batch file commands.
(The CHOICE delay trick above was found on the following
web page: http://www.robvanderwoude.com/index.html)
The last line launches WinWedge specifying the name of the
configuration file that you want it to load on the command
line.
You could save the batch file from Notepad with the filename:
C:\Launcher.BAT
and then put a shortcut to the batch file in your startup
folder so that Windows executes the batch file automatically
when it starts up.
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