Finding the Startup Folder on Windows

In recent years Microsoft has moved around where they “hide” the startup folder. That’s the folder that gets used to launch applications that start automatically when the user logs in. It’s not necessary hard to find, but it is well hidden.

There’s actually two places that startup folder lives. Each user has their own startup folder that will launch programs specific to that user. And there is also a common startup folder which will launch programs for any and all users that log into that machine.

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How to find the users’ individual startup folder

• Right click on the start menu and select ‘Run’.
• Type “shell:startup” and click ok.
• The startup folder will open, and you can drag-and-drag and shortcuts or applications you need into.

If you need to manually dive thru folders to get to the user’s startup folder, go to, but remember to change “<USER>” to the one you’re looking for:

C:\Users\<USER>\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\Startup

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How to find the all users’ common startup folder

• Right click on the start menu and select ‘Run’.
• Type “shell:common startup” and click ok.
• The startup folder will open, and you can drag-and-drag and shortcuts or applications you need into.

If you need to manually dive thru folders to get to the common startup folder, go to:

C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\StartUp