What is the best way put a program in windows startup?

Question

There are many methods to make a program run at windows startup.

For example:

• Start Menu --> All Programs --> Startup
• Registry (HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run)
• Task Scheduler
• More methods I don't know yet?

So the questions are:

• What is the differences between all those ways? (in the startup sequence/pipeline, technical, priority, system resources management, etc.)
• What is the best way to put a program in the windows startup?

Answer 1

You can use the Startup Folder Trick:

C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Start Menu\Programs\Startup

Or Win.ini Trick.

Info

Edit: Sorry I went too fast.

The common way a program is executed at startup is via the Registry or via a Windows Services. I believe the Services' way might be executed before the ones in the registry (..\CurrentVersion\Run).

I dont think however the program have been executed changes how this program consume resources.