[Fineus]

Hey all.

Windows, while still working - has decided to do something rather weird to me. Any program loaded up via a shortcut placed in the Startup folder of the start menu seems to load twice. This is true for any program placed in there - and while not life threatening - means that each program has to be shut down once manually.. it's also a big resource drain at startup.

I've tried reinstalling programs, placing the shortcut in my users startup folder as opposed to the "All Users" one... but nothing seems to work. Has anyone run into this before, could I have messed something up by cleaning up the Start menu folders of shortcuts I don't need?

In short... how do I fix this and prevent the programs placed there from loading more than once. This is driving me insane...

[Grey Wolf]

Hmm... Load MSConfig, and see if it's listed in there twice.

[Taristin]

Could there be duplicate shortcuts in the startup folder?

[HotSnoJ]

why are you using it anyway?

[Fineus]

Grey Wolf 2009 - yes there is, but they're identical. I've a feeling that disabling one will disable the other as well...

Raa - nope. That's not it unfortunately.

HotSnoj - Because I use ObjectDock, Rainlander and Rainmeter regularly as desktop stuff. I need them more or less on startup.. but not twice! heh...

[Bobboau]

wait if there in MSconfig's startup section, that is going to launch it at startup by it's self, if you also have it in the start folder that would be why it's laaunching it a second time.

[Fineus]

Thats where it gets interesting - I removed all links from the startup folder (since they were in MSCONFIG twice anyway).

Now they're not in that at all. On re-adding the links to the startup folder, it adds it back to MSCONFIG.

[Bobboau]

hmm... try adding them to the registry startup manualy.

[Fineus]

Will do (where can I find it? Tried searching for startup but it didn't seem to show anything helpful)

[Sandwich]

You're using 98??

[Fineus]

Nope, XP. I think the issue cropped up when I moved all my Start menu entries from user "Alex Avery" to user "All Users"... trouble is, putting any entry in the Alex Avery section won't start it up for some reason... they only start up in when in the All Users startup folder and then they start twice...

[Arc]

Not sure why Startup in your user doesn't work, but:

http://aumha.org/a/loads.php goes through all the loading points, including registry keys. It gives details for 9x, 2k and XP, so you'll need to pick out the bits you want.

Something to remember, these programs may check for their startup entries when they load if they're meant to be loading at boot time. If you've moved the entry, the program might assume it's been deleted and recreate it. You might not be able to move them out from your user's Startup folder.

[Fineus]

That could well be it, fortunately I found a something unusual... something helpful on the MS Help website...

http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=314488

Now I've wiped the Startup folder clean, and created a new policy to allow for the programs to be started up manually.

Ergo... problem solved!