Control "sequence" of startup programs in Windows

You can do it using Windows Task Scheduler:

Create a task with boot initialization trigger for each application that you want(the task will start the program/service that you want) and add a specific delay(such as 20s, 25s, 30s...) timer on initialization for each one.

Here you can see an example about creating a task on task scheduler.

In order to adjust the order of programs in the registry, you will need to remove them from this registry path (deleting the entries) and replace the registry start for the scheduler start method.

I hope this could solve your problem. Good look, Have fun :D

This is the method I use:

1. Go to: %APPDATA%\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\Startup

   • Startup directory is also under Start > All Programs
   • You can also use Win+r and type shell:startup

2. Create a shortcut of the .exe to launch at startup, then cut/paste it into Startup

3. Rename in the order you want:

   1_name
   2_name
   3_name
   

4. Reboot

Or, for apps under "C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\Startup", create a batch job in that folder. Copy the path of each app shortcut that is already in the start up folder and paste them in the batch job in the order you want them to launch.; On Windows 10 you can also introduce a delay between, to give time to fully open before running. For example, Act! Cloud Integration is an Outlook add-in, if both are in the start up Outlook loads before Act! and the add-in either is disabled or doesn't show at all. So I created the following batch command:

@ECHO OFF

echo "Starting Act! Integration for Outlook..

"C:\Program Files (x86)\ACT\ACT for Web\ClientSrvs\Office\Outlook\ACT!.Integration.exe" W

timeout /t 10 > nul

echo Starting Outlook..

"C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Office\root\Office16\OUTLOOK.EXE"

Don't forget to remove the shortcuts you are replacing!

In 2021 you can user power of Powershell and get full control of such actions, for example set a shortcut in shell:startup folder to starter.vbs file:

Dim objShell,objFSO,objFile
Set objShell=CreateObject("WScript.Shell")
Set objFSO=CreateObject("Scripting.FileSystemObject")
scriptdir = objFSO.GetParentFolderName(WScript.ScriptFullName)
strPath = scriptdir & "\start.ps1"
If objFSO.FileExists(strPath) Then
    set objFile=objFSO.GetFile(strPath)
    strCMD="powershell -noprofile -executionpolicy bypass -command " & Chr(34) & "&{" &_
     objFile.ShortPath & "}" & Chr(34) 
    objShell.Run strCMD,0
Else
    WScript.Echo "Failed to find " & strPath
    WScript.Quit
End If

which will silently run start.ps1 powershell script:

$chrome = Get-Process chrome -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue
if ($chrome) {
  [Diagnostics.Process]::Start("C:\Program Files\Google\Chrome\Application\chrome_proxy.exe","--profile-directory=Default --app-id=cdofaenddnbpbpbojpjnlndemfblmpfk");
}
Remove-Variable chrome

sleep 6
$firefox = Get-Process firefox -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue
if ($firefox) {
  [Diagnostics.Process]::Start("C:\Program Files\Mozilla Firefox\firefox.exe","www.mozilla.com");
}
Remove-Variable firefox
Exit