how to make my program ran at startup? vb.net

Question

hi I'm programming a desktop application similar to Google desktop but with my own gadget with vb.net 2008 how can i make my application when the user install it on their computer to run at the time of start up ? let assume that my application name is windowsAplication1 and I'm using windows XP and the program will be installed on C drive? thanks in advance

Answer 1

You can add it to registry with the following code

 My.Computer.Registry.LocalMachine.OpenSubKey("SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run", True).SetValue(Application.ProductName, Application.ExecutablePath)
    End Sub

you can remove it using

My.Computer.Registry.LocalMachine.OpenSubKey("SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run", True).DeleteValue(Application.ProductName)

The above code will add it to all users. You can add it to current user in the following key

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run

Or you can add a link to your application in the "Startup" folder.

I suggest you dont do it automatically it may irritate the user. I hate when apps add them automatically to Windows Startup. Give an option for the user to run the program on windows startup.