StartUp folder entries self-delete at each boot

I have been going nuts all evening (and all night!) trying to create entries in my StartUp folder. This is something that was trivially easy in prior versions (up through Win7), Then, I picked up a new computer at a decent price (cheaper than I could build the equiv.), but, sadly, it arrived with Windows 10 Pro/64 installed. There are a few things that are admittedly nice (such as the ability to have multiple desktops I can easily select), but are in practice, useless (such as the multiple desktops - when are not restored when I reboot, causing several desktops' worth of material to pile up in one desktop).

Today I hit the mother of all PITA experiences. I struggled to add some items to the StartUp folder. First thing I noticed was that I did not notice the StartUp folder. So, much searching online, and I discovered that there are three of them, all nicely hidden.

Nice work, MS! The easier they make things, the harder they get. They never heard thtat, "If it works, don't fix it."

I tried these three locations, two of which can be accessed either via a shell command, or, directly:

For "my" StartUp folder:

shell:startup
or,
%appdata%\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\Startup
or,
C:\Users\[my acct name]\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\Startup


And, for all-users StartUp folder:

shell:common startup
or,
%programdata%\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\Startup

What happens is that batch files I copy there disappear at boot time -- with one exception!

That's an entry for VLC -- this is what's in the batch file:

start /HIGH C:"\Program Files\VideoLAN\VLC\vlc.exe" %1

That was one of the first "test" entries, possibly the first, I can't recall (burnout sucks).

I tried copying the files, moving the files, no difference. Although, possibly unrelated, very frequently I would get a strange roadblock of an error when trying to copy a second file. The first time, I'd get a warning that I needed to give it Administrator permission (even though I'm using an Administrative account), but trying to copy another file, I'd first get that notice -- and after I'd OK'd it, I'd get another warning, this time saying I needed "permission" -- that was it, just "permission" with no hint as to what permission. It would allow me to retry, or cancel, and it stayed in that strange state until I'd reboot the machine.

I spelunked the Registry, the only thing I found that made me go "Hmm..." were the entries in:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\StartupApproved\StartupFolder

There were two entries: one for the "Start - VLC.bat" file, and another for "Start - VLC2.bat" which I manually created (copying the binary data for the entry).

That copy did persist from boot to boot -- but, if I edited the batch file to run a different program, it would self-delete at runtime.

Also strange: before any of these entries would self-delete, they would run the programs (or load the folders or text files as they were expected to load) -- but, they would then terminate the programs, files, and folders before self-deleting the batch files!

I've never seen anything like this, and from all the searching I've done, scant few others have too. And, it "should" work as it had up through Win7, i.e., put it in the StartUp folder and it'll start at boot time -- each boot time. A glorious GUI-matic "autoexec.bat" surrogate. Well, even autoexec.bat was easier than this nightmare!

I ran Windows Update, I ran SFC/SCANNOW, I bashed my head against the wall -- nothing helped (except that it felt good when I stopped bashing my head against the wall).

So, after "the above" I am now officially at my wits end. Does anyone know what I'm doing wrong -- or, what MS has done wrong, but how I can work around it?

I hate begging, but... I'm begging!

eutectic said:

So, much searching online, and I discovered that there are three of them, all nicely hidden.

There are more than 3 - there is this lot as well

Code:

HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run

HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\RunOnce

HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\StartupApproved\Run

HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\StartupApproved\Run32

HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\StartupApproved\StartupFolder

It depends which users and when in the boot process you want them no run. I stick with shell:common startup or shell:startup generally.

eutectic said:

I'd get another warning, this time saying I needed "permission" -- that was it, just "permission" with no hint as to what permission.

I have these permissions - basically Administrators full control and everyone read/execute. I doubt it is your problem if they are running once though.

Code:

PS C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\Startup> icacls '.\Divinity - Original Sin Enhanced Edition.lnk'
.\Divinity - Original Sin Enhanced Edition.lnk S-1-5-21-2885466168-1308911243-2206185695-1000:(I)(DE,DC)
                                               MACBOOK\Hali:(I)(DE,DC)
                                               MACBOOK\Administrator:(I)(DE,DC)
                                               NT AUTHORITY\SYSTEM:(I)(F)
                                               BUILTIN\Administrators:(I)(F)
                                               BUILTIN\Users:(I)(RX)
                                               Everyone:(I)(RX)

Successfully processed 1 files; Failed processing 0 files
PS C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\Startup>

I've only tried putting shortcuts in startup folder. Does it delete shortcuts to you bat files if you do that?