Bloke Loc: Waynesboro, Pennsylvania

For some reason, my email program (Thunderbird) no longer starts automatically when I reboot my PC. It always has in the past. I have a program which lists all the processes which autorun on startup, and Thunderbird is no longer listed in it.

Earlier versions of windows had a nice simple folder called Startup, and if you put a shortcut to your program in there, it would start on boot. If the startup folder is still there, I am dashed if I can find it!

Not claiming that this is a catastrophe or anything, but I get nervous when my machine starts acting differently...

So, anyone know how to mark a program for auto-start?

lamiaceae Loc: San Luis Obispo County, CA

You know the answer, upgrade to Windows 10. Then everything will make sense again (once you figure out where things are that is).

djet Loc: Burbank, CA

Right-click on the small square located in the lower left of your screen. Select task manager. One of the taps is startup and you can control which programs run at startup.

Bloke Loc: Waynesboro, Pennsylvania

I didn't realize that they were listed under there. However, there doesn't seem to be a way of adding a process. You can see what is there, and disable any which you don't want. I need to be able to *add* my email back in, though...

Bloke Loc: Waynesboro, Pennsylvania

Not the question I asked. Windows 10 will not install on my PC because I had the sheer effrontery to change the location of the libraries from the C drive to a data drive. There isn't room on the C drive, even if I wanted to move them back.

If I could find where things are in windows 8.1, I wouldn't have an issue. What makes you think it would be easier in yet another version?

I wish people would answer the questions asked, and keep the snarky comments to themselves; save us all a bunch of time!

Bloke Loc: Waynesboro, Pennsylvania

I found it... Hidden so deep in the file structure that windows own search routine couldn't find it!
Here is the path: C:\Users\Username\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\Startup

Talk about a mouthful!

JCam Loc: MD Eastern Shore

Another good reason to get rid of 8.0 & 8.11 Go back to Win7 Pro; it works well and you can tell from reading here that MS doesn't have all the 'bugs' out of 10 yet.

markngolf Loc: Bridgewater, NJ

This may help.http://www.softwareok.com/?seite=faq-Windows-8&faq=206
Mark

papakatz45 Loc: South Florida-West Palm Beach

Agree. This happens a lot on this site.

jimmya Loc: Phoenix

I think, I use W7, that if you have a search window type: msconfig. That should get you to a menu that includes startup.

Bloke Loc: Waynesboro, Pennsylvania

Unfortunately, I can't... My disk for 7 Pro was an upgrade only, so I would have to go back to XP in order to load that, and I don't have any disks for XP... Stuck with 8.1 until this PC goes belly-up, then I guess I will be stuck with 10...

Bloke Loc: Waynesboro, Pennsylvania

It is all fixed now. Once I found the folder - honestly, windows search on C could not find it; don't know if it is because of the length of the pathname or what! - it was a simple matter to create a shortcut, slip it in there, and when I rebooted, my Thunderbird came up like a champ. No idea why it stopped loading... I had run ReImage, hopefully to sort out some of the instabilities I have been experiencing, but that experience was less than satisfactory too. Another change which popped up at that time was the initial background screen, when it is saying "Loading windows, n% complete, do not switch off", instead of being a nice dark blue, is now bright red. It is not the 'background colour' which you can change in Personalize, but must be set somewhere else...

markngolf Loc: Bridgewater, NJ

You may be interested:
1. 8.1 can be made to look like Win 7.
2) Win 10 is the best OS Microsoft has developed. Very few have had difficulty with the installation.
3. Of course, if your system is incompatible or if you have not done all MS updates, that could create issues when updating to Win 10.
You are only "stuck" if you want to be.
Just Google, "How to make Win 8.1 look like Win 7. You'll find a host of information.
Mark

Bloke Loc: Waynesboro, Pennsylvania

I tried several times to run the update, but each time it failed with one of several error numbers. After a lot of digging around with google - MS was no help at all - it appears that the errors all pertain to systems where *either* there is insufficient room on C, or the libraries have been moved from their 'expected' places.

Years of system admin experience on *real* computers taught me the wisdom of keeping data drives separate from system drives, so I have my library folders all on an E drive. They work, so this is clearly not an 'illegal' place to store them. If windows can work and access them while they are on a separate drive, then why can't the upgrade be programmed to look into the registry and find out where they are, before performing whatever is needed during the upgrade? They are right there in the box, alongside the C drive, so it shouldn't be *that* difficult.

In my programming days, the programmers were supposed to work around the users' needs and requirements, but apparently MS is above that. If your system isn't set up *their* way, then tough... If I moved them onto the C drive, then there certainly would not be enough space to run the update, or probably to run windows itself. There is plenty of space available on my C drive to run the upgrade, if they could only find the libraries...

My system has all the updates, and is fully compatible with running windows. It is set up the way I want it, so why should I have to change it for them?

Apart from anything else, what the heck do they need with the libraries anyway??? They contain my data files. There is no system info on there, so there is no reason why an OS upgrade would need to mess with them. Just read the 8.1 registry to find where they are, and copy that pathname into the registry for 10. Any first-year programmer should be able to handle that, but apparently not micro$oft...

I have nothing against W10 itself - indeed, never even seen it running. No doubt my next PC will come adorned with it, and I will then get to figure out what they have changed this time. Until then, I will stick with what I have. I am certainly not about to go around re-configuring my whole system, just so the upgrade will work - or just as likely, find something *else* that I am not doing their way!

You say that very few have had problems with the installation, but a quick glance at google gives the lie to that statement. I am sure that those with problems are a relatively small minority, but with the number of existing windows machines out there, a miniscule minority could still number millions. I found many others who were having the same problems that I was, and who knows how many other error numbers are out there?

If it wasn't for PS, LR and a couple of my music programs (Finale, Sonar...), I would have abandoned Microsoft completely a long time ago. They have forgotten what the term "PC" stands for. It is a *personal* computer, but they are forcing everyone to move towards more business-oriented approaches with each new version. I live alone, so why should I need to log into my own PC with a password before I can use it? We used to be able to switch 'em on and go... Why do I get messages telling me that I don't have permission to access certain files or folders? I need to contact my 'administrator' for permission to delete certain junk files - I don't have an administrator, nor do I need one. Every few days I get an 'action center' message saying that it is important that I log into MS live with my latest password. I did it the first time, in case there was some deep sinister reason, but the message comes back again and again...

Besides, I don't see the point of making 8.1 look like 7... I would prefer to be running 7, but changing the cosmetics to make this *look* like that achieves nothing.

markngolf Loc: Bridgewater, NJ

I also have an E data drive, F Photo drive and keep my OS separate from data. I'm sorry you seem to be having all these issues with Windows and Microsoft. I hope you sort it out. I meant no harm with my response - just trying to assist.
Mark