Start Windows with previously open programs

Question

I am running Windows 7 64 bit. When I shut down my computer I have many programs open on the desktop. When I start my computer I want these programs to open automatically. I am aware of SaveMyCache, this requires me to tick boxes every time I shutdown my computer, I want something automatic.

Answer 1

Something that comes close to what you're asking: Enable hibernation in power management and instead of shutting down your PC, use the hibernate option. This does turn off your PC's power and restores your PC to the state you were in when you turned the system off.

Other than that, there's no built-in functionality that does what you are asking. The Windows restart manager was created for situations like this but software needs to support that and this is typically only used when installing new software or when updates are installed.

Answer 2

So I've decided to create this Powershell script.

Github project here.

Version with capturing the process arguments as well.

The actions performed:

1. Delete previous file.
2. Check the running processes.
3. Filter the list by path that contains specific word (Program) which assumes all programs are installed either in Program Files or Program files(x86)
4. Get the absolute paths to executables of processes that were found
5. Write paths to temp file in temp directory.
6. Move temp file to destination directory that is to Startup folder of user.

Pros:

• Written in powershell so the code is native and should work in Windows Vista and above.
• Works.

Cons:

• Programs installed in another path - not under program files - will not get picked up in this version. That is of course necessary to avoid starting native Windows processes like explorer.exe and so on. However if you have a path like D:\Apps where you also install programs, you can modify the line

  $_.Path -match "Program"

  to

  $.Path -match "Program" -or $.Path -match "D:\Apps"

  and it will work all the same.

Now the script code:

###############################
# AUTOMATIC STARTUP GENERATOR #
# ASGEN v.1.0 by mnmnc @ 2014 # 
###############################

# VARIABLES

    # CURRENT PATH
    $current = $(pwd).ToString()

    # DESTINATION PATH
    $destination_path = "$env:userprofile\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\Startup\programs.bat"

# MOVING TO TEMP    
cd $env:systemroot\Temp

# REMOVING OLD FILE
del $destination_path

# EMPTY ARRAYS
$arr_names = @()
$arr_paths = @()

# FILLING ARRAYS
Get-Process | Where-Object {$_.Path -match "Program" } | foreach { $arr_names += $_.Name; $arr_paths += $_.Path }

# CREATING FILE
for($i = 0; $i -le $arr_names.count -1; $i++) 
{ 
    $out = "`"" + $arr_paths[$i] + "`""
    write-output $out | out-file "programs.bat" -append -Encoding ascii
}

# INFO
Write-host "`nFolowwing programs will be started on next boot:`n"
cat programs.bat
Write-host "`n"

# MOVING TO STARTUP FOLDER
mv programs.bat "$destination_path"

# RETURNING
cd $current

exit

Simpy copy this code and paste it in the file shutdown.ps1 on your desktop. Save and close this file. Now create a second file shutdown.bat and put the code

powershell shutdown.ps1
shutdown -s -t 1

in this file. Save and close the bat file. You can now move both files to preferred directory. After that you can click with Right Mouse Button on a bat file and create a shortcut to this file. Then click with Right Mouse Button on a shortcut this time and choose Pin to Start Menu. This will add the shortcut to your Start Menu.

Now every time when you want to close the PC and save the running programs for an automatic startup after boot, you can use this shortcut.

---

Edit - Including Command Line arguments

Since you would like to save the process command line arguments as well, you have to change the Filling Arrays and Creating file sections to those:

# FILLING ARRAYS
Get-WmiObject Win32_Process | Where-Object { $_.Path -match "Program" } | foreach { $arr_names += $_.Name; $arr_paths += $_.CommandLine;  }

# CREATING FILE
for($i = 0; $i -le $arr_names.count -1; $i++) 
{ 
    $out =  $arr_paths[$i] 
    write-output $out | out-file "programs.bat" -append -Encoding ascii
}

The change is with using WMI now instead of get-process. Additionally the quotation marks have to be omitted this time.

---

Notice

In case you have an error when executing the script you probably have incorrect setting for Execution policy for powershell. To change that you have to open powershell console as administrator and type in Set-ExecutionPolicy Unrestricted and type in Y when asked to confirm. That's it. Should work fine.

Answer 3

Another option is to pull links to software to start into the 'Startup' folder in the Start menu - it is Slow, but works. It doesn't open the 'previously' open programs though, just a preset set.