Control Launch Order

By Neil J. Rubenking

You may need to launch multiple start-up programs in order, perhaps to connect to a VPN before launching a program that needs that connection. Create a new folder called C:\Ordered Launch and drag any shortcuts that currently reside in Start | All Programs | Startup to this new folder. If the shortcuts don’t already exist, create them in the new folder.

Open a command prompt, navigate to C:\Ordered Launch, and issue the command DIR /B /S > ordered.bat. Enter notepad ordered.bat to open the resulting batch file in Notepad. Copy and paste the lines in the desired launch order. Surround each line with quotes and precede it with the start command and a space; for example, start “C: \Ordered Launch\First Program.lnk”.

Double-click on the batch file to test it. The programs will start in the specified order, but if one takes longer to initialize, it may appear out of order. In that case, insert a delay line after the slow-starting program. This line will insert a 5-second delay: ping -n 5 127.0.0.1 > nul. Edit the value after -n to set a different delay. After testing the file, open Windows Explorer and right-drag it to the Startup folder, selecting Create Shortcuts Here.