Launch a program by accessing it's link from STARTUP

I want to launch a program by accessing it's link from STARTUP. I have tried this code, but it doesn' work. Anybody now what's the solution?

ClearErrors

ReadRegStr $startup HKCU "Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Shell Folders" "Startup"

nsExec::Exec '$startup\launchthis.lnk'

NSIS already has a $SMSTARTUP constant (see docs!)

-Stu

I already tried that but it didn't work.

Try the commands Exec or ExecShell instead of the nsExec Plugin

Yes you need to use ExecShell

Exec is for exe files.
nsExec::Exec is for command-line applications (mostly).

-Stu

OK. I tried this:
ExecShell "open" '$SMSTARTUP\merge.lnk'
And it didn't work.
What's the scenario: I have a text document named merge.txt that has a shortcut into the STARTUP folder. How do I execute that shortcut ?

If you made the shortcut within your installer why would you execute the shortcut to open a text file? There a different ways to open it. Try one of these:

- ExecShell "open" "Path\to\Textfile"
- Exec "Notepad.exe" "Path\to\Textfile"

I've not made the shortcut within my installer. The shortcut exists on the user's computer. Any ideas now?

perhaps this helps:

SetShellVarContext All/current

; you should set the above to the correct value. If not it can happen that it starts in the wrong location

ExecShell "" '$SMSTARTUP\merge.lnk'

; if open is not the default action

I've tried both SetShellVarContext current and SetShellVarContext All with
ExecShell "" '$SMSTARTUP\merge.lnk' and ExecShell "open" '$SMSTARTUP\merge.lnk'
It still doesn't anything. I'm very confused.

The question is does your open command point to the correct location or has nsis a problem to start link files.

Perhaps you should ensure that you point to the correct location using the command "IfFileExists"

The $SMSTARTUP points to the right location because I've read the path to Startup directly from the registry and it's the same as $SMSTARTUP. So this is not the problem.

I tested it now and for me it works.

OutFile "test.exe"



Section ""

SetShellVarContext current

IfFileExists "$SMPROGRAMS\7-Zip\7-Zip File Manager.lnk" file_exists

MessageBox MB_OK "File not found"

Goto Ende



file_exists:

ExecShell "open" "$SMPROGRAMS\7-Zip\7-Zip File Manager.lnk"

ende:

SectionEnd

In my test it worked with ExecShell open and ExecShell ""

OK. I've tried this and it doesn't work.
SetShellVarContext current
IfFileExists "$SMPROGRAMS\NSIS\NSIS Menu.lnk" file_exists
MessageBox MB_OK "File not found"
Goto Ende
file_exists:
ExecShell "open" "$SMPROGRAMS\NSIS\NSIS Menu.lnk"
ende:

I've also tried:
ExecShell "" "$SMPROGRAMS\NSIS\NSIS Menu.lnk"

It doesn't say that the file does not exist but it doesn't do anything.

What Specs you have?

I tested it under WINDOWS XP Pro SP1 with NSIS 2.05

Last NSIS Menu.lnk code also works fine on Win2K Server SP2, NSIS 2.04.

On XP SP2 it didn't work. On 2000 server it works. I'll have to see it works on 2003 server too. Everybody, thanks for your help.