Speed up your workflow by launching your favorite programs in one click using batch (.bat) files:
- Create a folder and add shortcuts to your favorite programs.
- Rename the shortcuts so that each consists of a single word.
- Create a text file and change the name to
something.bat. - Right-click on the
.bat("batch") file and select "Edit". - Emulate the following template according to your specific programs.
rem comments should begin with rem
rem note: this file launches all of my favorite apps!
rem note: replace the names below with your own..
@echo off
start %SystemRoot%\system32\cmd.exe
start firefox http://google.com/
start dreamweaver
start photoshop
start winamp
start notes.txt
@echo onThat’s all there is to it! Of course, there are many other neat things you can do with batch files, but we leave that for you to discover elsewhere. You may want to create additional batch files for various kinds of work. For example, you could create one batch file for web-development apps, another for graphic-design apps, and so on. All shortcuts and batch files may be placed in the same folder. Then simply customize shortcuts to your various batch files and use them to consolidate your quick launch and clean up your desktop!
8 Responses
Ankit – July 9, 2007 •
This was helpful !! thanks !! Good work !
nonhocapito – October 17, 2008 •
For those who want to use this in a batch file with commands surrounded by quotation marks, such as, for example
start “c:\program files\mycommand.exe”
well, it wont’ work unless you also indicate the title for the cmd window!
It must be the first thing you give to the Start command otherwise Start will take your command as the title, and won’t find anything else to launch.
So the right syntax should be:
start “my title” /B “c:\program files\mycommand.exe”
The /B switch will tell cmd to also close its window right away.
Hope this helps someone, it took me a few to figure it out.
Jeff Starr – October 19, 2008 •
@nonhocapito: Thank you, Sir! That is very kind of you to share with us! Cheers! :)
Robert – December 18, 2008 •
Neat O
I would like my little tiles on my task bar to be in a certain order. If I run it as described, the order is dependant on how fast the app can load. I wanted to put a small delay between each launch. I found CHOICE, but it seems to hang if the batch file’s window looses focus:
echo Hello Wordchoice /cY /tY,10 /nstart "Starting Outlook" /B "OUTLOOK.LNK"choice /cY /tY,10 /nstart "Starting IE" /B "IE.LNK"echoand so on…The choice after outlook hangs, I have to press the Y instead of it defaulting in 10 seconds
Jeff Starr – December 21, 2008 •
Mad skills, Robert — thanks for sharing! The delay would definitely help reduce processor loads and prevent crashes, especially for older computers and/or when many programs are being launched. Too bad there’s not a way to keep the window focused or “Always on Top”..
Jerrod – June 24, 2009 •
A better way of delaying a batch job (an old trick) is to ping localhost. you can change the duration of the delay by increasing or decreasing the number of pings using the
/n #switch. (#) being the number of pings.For example:
ping localhost /n 2Michael – September 23, 2009 •
There’s also a program that lets you write a text file with each line being either a file, program or web page URL and after you give the text file a .multifire file extension then when you double-click on it everything will be opened. You can download the Multifire software at http://sites.google.com/site/spiveyworks/multifire
Jeff Starr – September 26, 2009 •
Interesting and useful, Michael — thanks for sharing :)