Launch wpf Application on Windows startup

Question

I have developed a WPF application, now I have to launch the application on windows startup.
To do this, I have written the below code. I got the solution from this answer.
It is adding the key in registry but not launching the application.

Microsoft.Win32.RegistryKey key = Microsoft.Win32.Registry.CurrentUser.OpenSubKey("SOFTWARE\\Microsoft\\Windows\\CurrentVersion\\Run", true);
string str = Assembly.GetExecutingAssembly().Location;
key.SetValue("Camaleone", str);

when the application starts it will have the working directory C:\windows\System32. make sure any references to files it needs are looking in the right directory — SmithMart, Jan 25 '14 at 08:17
Where is placed the code snippet in your application? Because if it is not in the main(executable) assembly it wouldn't work. — Hamlet Hakobyan, Jan 25 '14 at 08:29
Another idea, does your application need administrator rights to run, if so it might be stopped by UAC, depending on os. — SmithMart, Jan 25 '14 at 08:43

score 12 · Accepted Answer · edited Sep 22 '15 at 20:34

12

When you start an application normally by double clicking, the working directory is normally the path of the exe file. This means if you reference any settings files in your code it can find them.

But, when you add it to the registry to run on startup, the working directory is c:\windows\system32 because it is started by windows itself.

I normally use this:

public static string BaseDir = System.IO.Path.GetDirectoryName(System.Reflection.Assembly.GetExecutingAssembly().Location);

this means that BaseDir is now the path to the exe.

Whenever I reference any files, eg a settings file I would use:

string mySettingsFile = Path.Combine(BaseDir, "MySettingsFile.xml");

edited Sep 22 '15 at 20:34

Tobias Liefke

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answered Jan 25 '14 at 08:32

SmithMart

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In your case you can just set the [Environment.CurrentDirectory](http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/system.environment.currentdirectory(v=vs.110).aspx). – Hamlet Hakobyan Jan 25 '14 at 08:37
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Be careful with Environment.CurrentDirectory it returns the working directory, so you could end up in the same boat. – SmithMart Jan 25 '14 at 08:39

Launch wpf Application on Windows startup

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