How do I run a PowerShell script when the computer starts?

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I finally got my PowerShell script to run automatically on every startup. You will need to create two files: the first is the Powershell script (e.g. script.ps1) and the second is a .cmd file that will contain commands that will run on the command prompt (e.g. startup.cmd).

The second file is what needs to be executed when the computer starts up, and simply copy-pasting the .ps1 to the startup folder won’t work, because that doesn’t actually execute the script – it only opens the file with Notepad. You need to execute the .cmd which itself will execute the .ps1 using PowerShell. Ok, enough babbling and on to the steps:

  1. Create your .ps1 script and place it in a folder. I put it on my desktop for simplicity. The path would look something like this:

%USERPROFILE%\Desktop\script.ps1

  1. Create a .cmd file and place it in

%AppData%\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\Startup\startup.cmd

Doing this will execute the cmd file every time on startup. Here is a link of how to create a .cmd file if you need help.

  1. Open the .cmd file with a text editor and enter the following lines:
PowerShell -Command "Set-ExecutionPolicy Unrestricted" >> "%TEMP%\StartupLog.txt" 2>&1
PowerShell %USERPROFILE%\Desktop\script.ps1 >> "%TEMP%\StartupLog.txt" 2>&1

This will do two things:

  1. Set the Execution Policy of your PowerShell to Unrestricted. This is needed to run scripts or else PowerShell will not do it.
  2. Use PowerShell to execute the .ps1 script found in the path specified.

This code is specifically for PowerShell v1.0. If you’re running PowerShell v2.0 it might be a little different. In any case, check this source for the .cmd code.

  1. Save the .cmd file

Now that you have your .ps1 and .cmd files in their respective paths and with the script for each, you are all set.

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