Anomolous behaviour of startup programs

I am experiencing (what appears to me to be) strange behaviour with programs that I am setting to run automatically when Windows 10 starts up:

• The Settings Options of 2 programs (PhraseExpress and FarStone Capture) have a check box to specify that the program should start when Windows starts. In each case, if I check the box, and then "OK" to confirm the settings, when go back into the Settings, the box is unchecked. The settings will not "stick".
• If I manually add links in the Windows startup folder (C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\Startup, the programs will start when Windows starts (and relevant boxes in the Settings Options for the 2 programs are then checked also). But FastStone capture opens in a normal window, instead of miminised.
• In addition to these 2 programs, I have a third program in the Startup folder. Autoruns reports 2 instances for each of the 3 programs that have links in the Startup folder, even though the folder has only 1 instance of each of the programs.

Can anyone cast any light on this (strange?) beaviour?

Hi. Thank for the reply.

dalchina said:

Hi, just tried FastStone Capture (I guess you meant FastStone?) v 8.4 - do you have that version?

Yes, v.8.4.

dalchina said:

I'm running as admin- are you as local user maybe? UAC is set 1 up from bottom.

I'm running as admin, with UAC set at the bottom.

dalchina said:

I set the Run and Minimize.....Windows starts option, closed the program, relaunched it and the check box remained checked.

FastStone Capture is reported by Autoruns as in Startup, where I find it.

If I launch it from the Startup entry it is minimised to the tray.

That's what I would expect - but it's not what I'm experiencing in this case!

Thank you for your reply. Your suggestion regarding the setting up of a new user caused me to think more about the system folder structures, and I remembered moving shortcuts from the User Programs folder to the All Users Programs folder, and I realised that I had also accidentally also mover the Startup folder from the User Programs folder to the All Users Programs. I therefore no longer had a Startup folder in my User Programs folder, and Windows had changed the registry settings for the user startup programs to the All Users Startup folder. So when Windows started, it ran the programs in the All Users Startup folder twice. And the absence of the User Startup folder was preventing the FastStone Capture and PhraseExpress startup settings from working correctly.

To address this, I have done the following:

• Created a new Startup Folder under the User Programs folder.
• Changed the following registry keys back to their original values:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Shell Folders

Startup C:\Documents and Settings\Your Profile Name\Start Menu\Programs\Startup

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\User Shell Folders
Startup %USERPROFILE%\Start Menu\Programs\Startup

HKEY_USERS\.DEFAULT\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\User Shell Folders
Startup %USERPROFILE%\Start Menu\Programs\Startup

These actions have resolved the startup issues.

Thank you again for your help.