Some years ago, when you work on multiple applications at the same time and you restart your system you will have to reopen all the applications all over again. This makes users always hibernate their system instead of switching it off. But with the release of Windows 10, there is now a feature that can automate the restart of all these applications after the system restart. In this guide, you will learn how to automatically reopen Windows Apps and Folders upon Startup. Please see How to run apps as an administrator on Windows 10 and Windows 11, and how to hide or stop Apps such as OneDrive from opening automatically upon login on Macbook Pro.
This feature can be configured on the settings app as it’s not necessarily enabled by default. You can also configure settings for folders you already open to reopen after a restart. You can also read on How to block apps from running in windows, and how to remove pre-provisioned apps from Windows Image. Here is a YouTube video demonstrating these steps described.
Automatically reopen Windows Apps and Folders upon Startup
Follow the steps below on how to implement automatically Windows Apps and Folders reopening on a Windows system. Please see Set Browers and Windows to reopen Apps on Startup, How to start an application automatically on Mac, and how to Set Browers and Windows to reopen Apps on Startup.
1: Under Windows 10 Navigate to Accounts > Sign-in options > Restart apps. Set this configuration “Automatically save my restartable apps when I sign out and restart them after I sign in” to On.
2. Under Windows 11 Navigate to Accounts > Sign-in options > Additional settings. Set this configuration “Automatically save my restartable apps and restart them when I sign back in” to On.
Configure Windows Registry to automatically reopen
3. Another way to configure this is through the registry editor. Open regedit and navigate to
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon
Create a new DWORD 32bit value you can name it RestartApps and enter a value data of 00000001. If you do not want this work again you will only need to change the value data to 0
4. You can configure explorer windows to reopen after every restart. This can be done via the folder options.
5. On the Folder options click the View tab and in the Advanced settings select Restore previous folder windows at logon. Once this is done any folder you were working on before you restart the system will be reopened.
6. Using Registry to Restore previous folder windows at logon. Navigate to the below registry location:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer
Right-click on the Explorer folder. Select New >> Key, name the key Advanced. Sometimes this key may already exist there would be no need of recreating it.
7. Next step is to create a REG_DWORD value = 1. Right-click on the Created key and select New > DWORD (32-bit) Value, name it PersistBrowsers.
Please see How to Enable or Prevent Reopen Windows when logging back in after Restart or Shutdown on Mac. And How to launch an application automatically during startup on Windows.
I hope you found this blog post on how to automatically reopen Windows Apps and Folders upon Startup Interesting and helpful. If you have any questions do not hesitate to ask in the comment section.
