Where is the startup (autostart) folder in Windows 8?

Well, Windows 8 has no Start Menu any more and the startup folder has disappeared also.

Where can I find that folder? Or is there a new way with Metro?

FiveO

Posted 12 years ago

Reputation: 7 940

– Peter Mortensen – 7 years ago

Its still there, just not readily available...http://www.addictivetips.com/windows-tips/where-is-startup-folder-how-to-edit-startup-items-in-windows-8/

– Moab – 12 years ago

Oh there it is - quite complicated though. But I'm not able to add new startup applications from the "Task Manager". Just view/deactivate. – FiveO – 12 years ago

Just drag your program shortcut to that folder, then it will start with windows. – Moab – 12 years ago

1yes it is. In Win 7 and before I always opened the startup folder from the start menu. This is not possible anymore, therefore a good question. – FiveO – 12 years ago

Answers

It can be found here:

C:\Users\%USERNAME%\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\Startup

or easier to access with this command in the Run Win+R prompt:

shell:startup

enter image description here

Here are even more explanations of how accessing/viewing the startup folder.

FiveO

Posted 12 years ago

Reputation: 7 940

1shell:startup works in Win7, as well! – Leftium – 12 years ago

1Wouldn’t it be better to use environment variables instead of a hard-coded path? – Synetech – 12 years ago

Don't understand what you mean. This has nothing to do with environment variables, this shows just the path to the startup folder. – FiveO – 12 years ago

The user specific startup folder can be access with shell:startup

The all users version can be accessed with shell:common startup

This can be entered in an Explorer address bar or the Run box.

Gert van den Berg

Posted 12 years ago

Reputation: 538

Try the below steps to add startup programs in Windows 8:

Open the Run command by typing Win+R
Type in the command as %APPDATA% then press Enter. This should take you to C:\Users\[you]\AppData\Roaming.
Go to \Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\Startup. The full path should look like: C:\Users\[you]\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\Startup.

Note: You can easily skip steps 2 and 3 by simply typing the command shell:Startup at the Run command instead of %APPDATA%

Now add any shortcut which you wanted to add in for the startup applications. You can do it by simply copying the existing shortcut and placing it here. Or Right-click | New | Create Shortcut and you can browse to the wanted program to add a shortcut to it here

user245301

Posted 12 years ago

Reputation:

After forgetting the shell:startup command a few times (and doing a cleanup which wiped the history from the run prompt)...

Run shell:startup
Go up one level to %APPDATA%\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs
Right-click on the Startup folder
Click 'Pin to Start'

Then it's just Win+'Startup' and the search should find it for you next time you forget.

Ta-da - 10 seconds saved off your life.

icc97

Posted 12 years ago

Reputation: 396