starting

Question

how would i make a program that would start itself up every time you started your computer? also how would i make a program that would be uncloseable.. like every time u tried to close it it would restart. i know both of these are possible cause i have seen it done. how would i do that?

VietB · Answer

1.ISSUE If you want your program that will be run automatically whenever your computer is started like some of the programs in the right corne of windows taskbar such as AntiVirus program etc.. All what you need to do is writting the path of you executable file into Windows Registry under the key and subkeys as follows: HKey_Local_Machine\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run Here I wish to help you writting information into Windows Registry by programmatically approach. For example if you have a form that contains a checkbox called chkAutoStart. Everytime the checkbox is checked or unchecked the following code will be used to write you executable path into the above key and subkeys or delete it from registry respectively. Note: use namespace Microsoft.Win32 Imports Microsoft.Win32 Private Sub chkAutoStart_CheckedChanged(ByVal sender As Object _ ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles chkAutoStart.CheckedChanged If chkAutoStart.Checked Then 'Write a information to windows regidtry Dim regKey As RegistryKey regKey = Registry.LocalMachine. _ OpenSubKey(SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run True) regKey.SetValue(Application.ProductName _ Application.ExecutablePath) regKey.Close() Else ' HasMyExePathInRun() function is used to check whether the executable path 'exists or not If HasMyExePathInRun() Then 'Delete information from Windows Regidtry Dim regKey As RegistryKey regKey = Registry.LocalMachine. _ OpenSubKey(SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run True) regKey.DeleteValue(Application.ProductName True) regKey.Close() End If End If End Sub Private Function HasMyExePathInRun() As Boolean Dim regKey As RegistryKey Dim arNames() As String Dim sName As String Try regKey = Registry.LocalMachine. _ OpenSubKey(SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run True) arNames = regKey.GetValueNames() For Each sName In arNames If sName = Application.ProductName Then Return True End If Next Catch ex As Exception Return False End Try End Function Also in the Form_Load event handler you can check whether you exe path exists in registry or not. Private Sub Form1_Load(ByVal sender As Object _ ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles MyBase.Load 'Check from the registry If HasMyExePathInRun() Then chkAutoStart.Checked = True Else chkAutoStart.Checked = False End If End Sub Now You can test it. Click on the checkbox. Close your program and restart computer. You can see that your program will be load automatically. 2.ISSUE Normally some applications that need to run all the time and it prevents the user to close it such as some apps in the right corne of taskbar. You need to understand two terms as follows: Hide: means that the actual form will disappear on the screen but it is still running behind the screen Exit: means that the actual form will unload from memory the application process will be terminated completely The x mark in the topmost right corne of the form is controlled by operative system and when the user try to close the form by clicking on it  the apps will be terminated completely. How to override this functionality? Surprisingly the code is very simple. Here whenever the form is detected to be closed. It fires an event called Closing event. In this procedure I use a global Boolean variable called “isCloseButtonPushed” to detect whether the user want to terminating or just hiding the form. The folowing code snippet is used to hide a form when the user click on x mark button. Private Sub Form1_Closing(ByVal sender As Object _ ByVal e As System.ComponentModel.CancelEventArgs) Handles MyBase.Closing If Not m_isCloseButtonPushed Then Me.Hide() e.Cancel = True End If End Sub Hope this can help!!! Regards

Adam Erstelle · Answer

I'll help you out for the first point. All that you simply need to do is have a shortcut to your application in the StartUp folder in the Start Menu of the target machine. This will launch the program automatically whenever a user logs in to that machine. As for the second point why would you want the application to be uncloseable? The only applications that I know of that won't let you terminate them are viruses!