Here’s how to automatically open your favorite apps and sites when your PC starts up

Heres how to automatically open your favorite apps and sites

Are you tired of having to restart your favorite applications one by one and manually opening your favorite sites every time you turn on your PC? That’s good, Windows has a function to do it automatically.

You probably use many applications and web pages during a work or leisure day on your PC. All these windows are preserved when you put your PC to sleep, and restored when you wake your computer. On the other hand, if you completely turn off your machine, all programs are automatically closed, and you must then restart them one by one the next time you turn it on.

Turning off your computer completely, rather than simply putting it to sleep, is a good habit to get into because it saves energy, finishes installing updates, and resolves certain issues. Despite these advantages, having to manually re-open the same applications and web pages each time you start or restart the computer can quickly become tedious on a daily basis.

Long Standby is an interesting first intermediate solution. Unlike classic Standby, it consumes (almost) no energy and does not lose your data in the event of a power outage. To use it, however, you must activate a specific option on Windows 10 and 11. In addition, it does not allow you to finalize the installation of updates, reset background processes, or clear caches. of data.

Completely turning off your computer on a regular basis therefore remains essential. Fortunately, Windows has two practical functions, which allow you to benefit from the benefits of a shutdown or restart, while instantly finding applications and Internet pages open when the computer is turned off. To take advantage of it, simply activate two simple and easy-to-find options in the system.

First, open the Settings of Windows, then go to the section Accounts > Login Options. There, turn on the switch to the right of the option labeled Automatically save my restartable apps and restart it when I log back in. Once in place, this function will automatically restart open applications when your computer is shut down, in the state they were in.

The system works very well for native Windows programs and Microsoft software, such as the Edge browser, which will launch with all its tabs, or the Word, Excel and PowerPoint applications, which will reopen with the current documents when shutdown of the PC. However, not all third-party applications are supported by this function. If Chrome restarts fine with all its tabs, this is not the case for Firefox for example.

Oddly, File Explorer does not reopen on its own when starting the PC when this function is activated. For it to do this, you must enable a second option. Open itFile Explorerclick the three dots in the toolbarthen on Options. There, click on the tab Displaythen in the list Advanced settingscheck the box labeled Restore open folder windows at next logon.

Once this setting is in place, File Explorer will automatically open when you start or restart your computer, in the folders that were open when you shut it down. Be careful though, if you had opened multiple tabs in one File Explorer window at the time of shutdown, these will then be restarted in separate windows, which will quickly clutter the desktop.

But good news, an improvement to this behavior is being developed by Microsoft. As spotted by the Windows Latest site in an article from December 9, 2024, Windows 11 Build 22635.4580 would allow File Explorer to instantly reopen with all its tabs after a restart. This feature is currently being tested on the Windows Insiders Program Beta Channel, and may therefore be available to everyone in a future update.

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