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I just logged in (Windows 7 x64) and saw RunOnce run with this command line:

C:\Windows\system32\runonce.exe /Explorer

... huh? What's going on?

Edit:

I know what RunOnce does, but I'm confused as to what /Explorer does; sorry if that was unclear.

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  • This is a really interesting question. I tried runonce /? and it doesn't offer any documentation. Does it run this every time you log in?
    – jcrawfordor
    Commented May 22, 2011 at 21:51
  • @jcrawfordor: Nope, hadn't seen it before; I just saw it run today.
    – user541686
    Commented May 22, 2011 at 21:53
  • Did your computer install updates on the previous shutdown? I wonder if this is related to the installation/configuration of updates.
    – jcrawfordor
    Commented May 22, 2011 at 21:54
  • @jcrawfordor: Not that I know of... Installed Updates is telling me my last update was on the 13th. No new programs installed either.
    – user541686
    Commented May 22, 2011 at 21:57

2 Answers 2

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That is Windows running things listed in your RunOnce key(s) in the registry.

One of them probably just took longer than expected, so you got to see the actual RunOnce.exe window.

EDIT: A little more info:

From here (Bing-translated to English):

Perhaps the most important moment of this phase is the automatic execution of programs present in the key of registry HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\RunOnce. These programmes are implemented, as its name suggests, only once: at the time that a user with administrative privileges, log on to the machine. There is a programme responsible for carrying out this process: C:\Windows\system32\Runonce.exe. Called the "Runonce.exe /Explorer" command, which, if the user is Administrator of the computer, is responsible for executing the contents of the key RunOnce (which usually are downstream of the installation of a program).

From what I can tell (there's not much info on it), the "/Explorer" switch is what causes RunOnce.exe to be run against each entry in the keys.

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  • Yeah I know, but the thing is, why /Explorer? What does that flag do?
    – user541686
    Commented May 22, 2011 at 21:30
  • @Mehrdad - There's a bit more info on it for you. but there's really not a lot of info out there about it -- especially the switches; my guess as to why the lack of information is because we, as users, really don't have a reason to run/use the switches (but Windows itself does).
    – Ƭᴇcʜιᴇ007
    Commented May 22, 2011 at 22:10
  • Interesting, so it seems like it's not as interesting as I thought, haha. Thanks for the info!
    – user541686
    Commented May 22, 2011 at 23:17
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In Windows Vista and later, you must use the command RunOnce.exe /explorer to process commands and launch applications which are entered in the registry under

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\RunOnce

The /Explorer switch is probably intended to prevent you processing these entries at the wrong time - i.e. when a user is already logged on - but this can easily be circumvented by using the switch.

In Windows XP and earlier, RunOnce.exe would process the contents of keys in

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\RunOnce

when launched without command line switches (which were ignored by the program anyway - unless somebody knows of a valid switch for those versions of RunOnce.exe).

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