Startup-finished desktop icon

Startup-finished desktop icon A desktop icon telling me startup is finished

#1 Dave Binko

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Posted 04 September 2009 - 01:15 PM

I would like to have a desktop icon come up to let me know when startup is done. As it is, I have no way of knowing
and have a penchant for trying to start programs/apps before the process is complete, usually with undesired results.
Systray icons all display before startup is finished, by quite a bit.
I'd be happy to entertain any suggestions, including other startup-finished signals.

#2 starcraftmaster

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Posted 05 September 2009 - 09:35 AM

start up cant take that long can it ? lol my windows me computer sure don't take long(Pentium 3 )

any way just look at the Hard Drive light on the computer
if its going on and off fast then its still loading and if it starts going down to on -3 seconds- off then it should be fine

#3 Andrew

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Posted 05 September 2009 - 12:17 PM

I don't think there's a app for that. You could use Startup Delayer in concert with a custom script that displays a message or something... lemme think on it.

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#4 PropagandaPanda

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Posted 05 September 2009 - 12:45 PM

Hello.

The last autostart location is the user startup folder, for most purposes. So, if you put a program in that folder, it could be used as a fair indication of when Windows is done loading.

%userprofile%\Start Menu\Programs\Startup\
Is the folder on XP machines.

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#5 M...

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Posted 05 September 2009 - 01:29 PM

Hello Dave Binko,

The following is the closest that I have come to finding something to do what you want. It was actually suggested by 'CHW803' on the Comcast Help Forums while I ('M_') was still a Comcast customer and asked the same question. The technique works very well and accounts for variations in startup times due to finalization of software/update installations, etc.

Visually See when Windows XP has Actually, Finally Booted
(i.e., see when your computer really is "ready to use" after booting/starting it)

1. Right-click on the "Start" button at the bottom-left of the display.
2. Left-click on the "Explore" menu item.

In the left-hand pane/window:

If you want this feature to be activated for all users of the computer, then proceed with all the steps below. However, if you want this feature to be activated only for the current user (the user you are logged on as now), skip steps 3. and 4. below and continue at step 5. below.

3. Go up to "All Users" (under "...(C:)", "Documents and Settings") and left-click on "All Users" to expand it (down).
4. Go down to "Start Menu" and left-click it to expand it (down).

5. Go down to "Programs" and left-click it to expand it (down).
6. Go down to "Startup" and left-click it to expand it -- it expands in the right-hand pane/window.

In the right-hand pane/window, right-click in an empty area of the window. A menu will pop up.
Select "New", then select "Shortcut" from the next pop-up menu.
When the "Create Shortcut" wizard appears, click "Browse...", click "My Computer", click "...(C:)", click "WINDOWS", click "SYSTEM32", click "taskmgr.exe", then click the "OK" button.
Click "Next>" in the Create Shortcut wizard. The name for the shortcut should be "taskmgr.exe" (you can change it if you want). Then click the "Finish" button.

When the Windows Task Manager display appears during startup, select the "Performance" tab (if it was not the last tab selected -- Task Manager remembers this). When the "CPU Usage" display settles down to about 1%-5%, all startup (boot) processes/programs have finished initializing and your computer is ready to use. On some computers, the "idle state" may actually be higher (e.g., 10% CPU Usage), depending on what is running in the background.

You can close/exit the Task Manager at any time by clicking the "X" in the upper-right corner of the window. You can later restart the Task Manager manually by simultaneously pressing the "Ctrl", "Alt" and "Del" keys ("Ctrl+Alt+Del").

#6 batya7

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Posted 08 September 2009 - 04:34 PM

What a good suggestion, Dave Binko!

@PropagandaPanda - if you could program the final task to display a photo... I think that would work. Of course, I have no idea how to arrange that.

@starcraftmaster - Oh yes, startup can take that long. Somewhere along the line something goofed up my computer and I haven't been able to rid it of that burden. Between the antivirus update and svchost.exe and who knows what verizon is doing, it can take a good 5 minutes to boot up. In the meantime, the hard disk is "chittering" away... and sometimes the light continues flashing even after I can safely start up an application (like Firefox).

... But that's a whole 'nother problem......

I usually have the Task Manager open while doing startup just so I can see when the numbers settle down. Some days it still confounds me....... :thumbsup:

This post has been edited by batya7: 09 September 2009 - 08:49 AM

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#7 starcraftmaster

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Posted 09 September 2009 - 01:13 AM

batya7, on Sep 9 2009, 07:34 AM, said:

What a good suggestion, Dave Binko!

@PropagandaPanda - if you could program the final task to display a photo... I think that would work. Of course, I have no idea how to arrange that.

@starcraftmaster - Oh yes, startup can take that long. Somewhere along the line something goofed up my computer and I haven't been able to rid it of that buredn. Between the antivirus update and svchost.exe and who knows what verizon is doing, it can take a good 5 minutes to boot up. In the meantime, the hard disk is "chittering" away... and sometimes the light continues flashing even after I can safely start up an application (like Firefox).

... But that's a whole 'nother problem......

I usually have the Task Manager open while doing startup just so I can see when the numbers settle down. Some days it still confounds me....... :thumbsup:

gee am happy that i still use my old windows ME computer lol
my brothers uses the vista comp and it is a slow startup(both computers have anti virus and firewall at start up)

#8 Bambo

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Posted 09 September 2009 - 03:03 PM

Vistas Task Scheduler has "on startup" trigger, XP when log on? Well if you make a pic in Irfanview or something, export to exe-file - you can run/show that (anything goes) when computer has been idle for lets say 10 secs. Would that not exclude other processes? Idle means what? Dont know but guess cpu usage, perhaps disk activity.

Think some programs must be misbehaving if fast desktop gives problems.

This post has been edited by Bambo: 09 September 2009 - 03:05 PM

#9 patbox

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Posted 11 September 2009 - 02:38 PM

I am surprised that you guys consider this complicated to do. There are some applications that allow you to define the order of the programmes that star up. Just put notepad.exe into your start up folder, and let it start last. Would this not work?

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#10 Romeo29

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Posted 11 September 2009 - 09:01 PM

batya7, on Sep 8 2009, 05:34 PM, said:

@PropagandaPanda - if you could program the final task to display a photo... I think that would work. Of course, I have no idea how to arrange that.

As far as showing a photo on startup through the location PropagandaPanda suggested is concerned :

1. Open notepad and copy/paste the following :

@echo off
start c:\maria_sharapova.jpg
exit

Here you have to change c:\maria_sharapova.jpg with the image of your own with full path. if the picture mypic.jpg is in D:\personal then replace with d:\personal\mypic.jpg

2. In Notepad, choose File > Save As. In the file name field copy/paste %userprofile%\Start Menu\Programs\Startup\ and press Enter. Again in the file name field type showpic.bat, in the Save as type select All Files and click Save

You are done :thumbsup:

Make sure the picture file you specified in the file you made with notepad exists.

EDIT: I think if you just copy the picture file in %userprofile%\Start Menu\Programs\Startup\ then it would be opened at startup. LOL

This post has been edited by Romeo29: 11 September 2009 - 09:02 PM

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