Windows 8: Where did the Startup folder go?

I am a long time user of the Start menu’s “Startup” folder to run several apps that I want to launch after on logon. With the new Start menu now not showing this folder, I decided to figure out how to accomplish this task.

I go into this already knowing the location this folder sits on disk. It is the merger of the following two folders:

• C:\Users\<username>\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\Startup
• C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\StartUp

My question is how to get a shortcut to my favorite startup apps into these folders without having to navigate to these deep directories.

The best solution I have found for this is the following Shell commands that can be run from the run box (WIN+R):

• shell:startup
• shell:common startup

This will do.

Comments

• Anonymous
  August 19, 2012
  Let say I am a newbie or avg user. I doubt this will be easy for them.

• Anonymous
  August 19, 2012
  Not hard at all, and works from the Start screen, too! [WinKey] shell:startup [Enter] and you're there! Thanks, Jason!

• Anonymous
  August 19, 2012
  Randall, I agree that this is not easy for a newbie, but I would counter that the task itself is out of bounds for a newbie also. 99% of apps that have an option to run at startup handle this in their install or configuration. Sysinternal's autoruns.exe will show you the normal extensibility points used by developers to allow apps to run as a part of startup. On the other side of the fense, I have escalated this concern internally so the Windows team understand this implications of the Start menu change to the use of the Startup folder. Thanks for the comments!

• Anonymous
  November 03, 2012
  The shell commands from the Run menu was very useful! Thanks

• Anonymous
  November 04, 2012
  I'll be using the Run Menu solution you provided. Thanks for the info.

• Anonymous
  December 03, 2012
  have a look at this URL hope it will help u www.addictivetips.com/.../where-is-startup-folder-how-to-edit-startup-items-in-windows-8

• Anonymous
  December 19, 2012
  I would say that the person who wrote that addictivetips article would benefit more from being linked to THIS one than vice versa, as their rambly suggestion doesn't even come close to this excellent solution. Well done, thank you very much! I also found "shell:start menu" and "shell:common start menu" came in handy when setting up a bunch of new Windows 8 workstations.

• Anonymous
  December 28, 2012
  I would like to have an audio clip play at start up.  Will this work?

• Anonymous
  January 07, 2013
  The comment has been removed

• Anonymous
  January 17, 2013
  Brilliant thanks , Easy and quick :-)

• Anonymous
  February 10, 2013
  I will definitely use the shell command in the future. You answered my question in less than a minute! Thanks.

• Anonymous
  February 14, 2013
  Thanks i was searching for this article now i found two good article on this topic www.ohotech.com/.../how-to-add-any-programs-and-files-to-startup-folder-in-window8.html

• Anonymous
  February 14, 2013
  Nice one dude, this is good as I would consider using this if I can't find my way via the programming.

• Anonymous
  February 25, 2013
  Win 8 still allows you to create new toolbars, just use the URLs in the first post to create two new toolbars with the start menus in them, simplifies things

• Anonymous
  February 27, 2013
  Looked everywhere and couldn't find the start menu location. Your answer was very helpful. Thanks John 20 Aug 2012 6:28 AM

Not hard at all, and works from the Start screen, too! [WinKey] shell:startup [Enter] and you're there! Thanks, Jason!

• Anonymous
  April 04, 2013
  Nice... Thanks

• Anonymous
  September 22, 2013
  You should have said to open the Start screen then type shell:startup because most people don't use the Start screen; they find some software to bring back the start menu.

• Anonymous
  November 02, 2013
  is there a simple way to merge the two locations, so that I may have a single toolbar equivalent to "shell:common programs"?

• Anonymous
  April 14, 2014
  Press KEYWINDOWS + R  and write the command SHELL:STARTUP  

• Anonymous
  June 08, 2014
  Start => Run => C:UsersAll UsersMicrosoftWindowsStart MenuProgramsStartup it's working for me on windows 8.1

• Anonymous
  June 24, 2014
  Microsoft removed allot of shortcuts in Windows 8, one of them was the Startup folder shortcut. I use the run command shell:startup. This site explains it better than I can. spacecitytech.com/.../some-useful-shortcuts-to-the-control-panel-shutdown-and-startup-menu-for-windows-8-and-microsoft-server-2012

• Anonymous
  October 15, 2014
  There is a file called "program" that I can disable or enable in my startup folder - but I cannot view the properties.  Is this spyware? How Can I find out??

• Anonymous
  March 16, 2015
  Works in Windows Technical Preview (Windows 10)

• Anonymous
  May 09, 2015
  Thanks for the shell command.........it is the most easy way.......

• Anonymous
  August 27, 2015
  For the current logged in user: C:Users%USERNAME%AppDataRoamingMicrosoftWindowsStart MenuProgramsStartup

• Anonymous
  October 14, 2016
  go to (type) "run" on window then type shell:startup and copy the sturtcut of a program in to the folder and reboot computer.

• Anonymous
  December 29, 2016
  The comment has been removed

• Anonymous
  January 30, 2017
  I use BGInfo on all the servers in our legacy platform lab to keep the system data on screen and refreshed per log-in. I use the icon in the Startup group to kick it off. This is much easier than setting up a Scheduler job. Thanks for info on how to populate the group even the Administrator can no longer browse to.

• Anonymous
  December 22, 2017
  Very good article! We will be linking to this great article on our site.Keep up the good writing.

• Anonymous
  July 02, 2018
  Not depreciated ... still works like a champ.