If you need to start a program or a group of programs automatically, but don’t want the hassle of clicking on them, why not create a batch file to do it for you?

Here’s how you can create a simple batch file to start a bunch of programs:

1. Launch Notepad and type the following (Note: you can replace the program names with whatever program you want to launch). See Image:
   
2. As you can see by the image. We’ve got the words @echo off which instructs the batch file not to show results in the command window. Then we’ve got the words Start followed by a space and followed by the name of a program. In this case we are launching Firefox and Thunderbird.
3. 9 times out of 10 this method will work fine. On occasion you may need to type out the full path to the program. For example:
   
   
4. As you can see by this example. I’ve found the directory where the program is located and enclosed it in double quotations preceded by 2 double quotes. And I’ve also enclosed the application_name.exe at the end.
5. Save the program with a .bat extension. In the example above, I’ve named my file start.bat
   
6. Now if you want to completely automate this process, just drag the .bat file you created into your Startup folder and the batch file will automatically launch those programs when Windows starts.

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