How can I make a Click-once deployed app run at startup?

Question

How can I make a Click-once deployed app run a startup?

The best option I found by searching was to set the Publisher on the app to Startup, so the Start menu shortcut would be placed in the Startup folder, but that seems like a huge hack and I would like there to be a Start menu icon people can find.

What options do I have?

Answer 1

I feel that adding your application to the startup folder is unprofessional. I strongly recommend using a startup registry key to launch your application.

Contrary to what a lot of the material on this topic says, it is extremely simple to setup a key to launch a click once application and does not require setting up additional shortcuts. You simply use the shortcut created on install:

// The path to the key where Windows looks for startup applications
RegistryKey rkApp = Registry.CurrentUser.OpenSubKey(
                    @"SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run", true);

//Path to launch shortcut
string startPath = Environment.GetFolderPath(Environment.SpecialFolder.Programs) 
                   + @"\YourPublisher\YourSuite\YourProduct.appref-ms";

rkApp.SetValue("YourProduct", startPath);