Access to the Windows Startup directory via Run

Question

What is the command to type in the Windows Run that opens the user's Startup directory?

• it's of a format similar to %windir% for Windows and %appdata% for application data
• the site Computer Productivity has lots of the shortcuts, but not Startup

I'm trying to reduce RSI, so I try to use keyboard shortcuts for as much as possible.

Answer 1

It's the "shell" command. For example, I can type

shell:startup

in the Run dialog to pop open the \Start Menu\Programs\Startup directory.

There are a LOT of the "shell" commands, and a long listing is at Access special folders easily using the shell command.

Answer 2

Create a small VBS program startup.vbs:

set objShell = CreateObject("WScript.Shell")
objShell.Run("""" & objShell.SpecialFolders("Startup") & """")

This would open current user's startup folder in Windows Explorer. This would work in every still supported Windows version, in every language.

You can use "AllUsersStartup" instead of "Startup" if you need. You can read about SpecialFolders property here.

Answer 3

"%USERPROFILE%\Start Menu\Programs\Startup"

does work on Windows XP.

As far as I can tell, there are no further shortcuts. You can see here a list of all variables and there is no other way to reference Startup.

However, you may have seen a shorter version in some scripting language macros, like Autoit:

@StartupDir     current user's Startup folder

Answer 4

Start Menu\Programs\StartUp

If it doesn't work, try:

%UserProfile%\Start Menu\Programs\StartUp

Or you can go define your own variable - %st% for example. In Windows XP it was under System Properties - Environment.

Also, the Command Prompt, combined with tab completion and doskey aliases is pure awesomeness, in my opinion.

Answer 5

The variable is %username%. So, for my account (roaming) in Windows Vista:

• Start, run,

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

Answer 6

For Windows 7 or Windows Vista, start run:

c:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\startup