Support

Product: Startup Apps Keys for Windows (Stream Deck plugin for Windows) · Provider: GRAMSHIFT (Tokyo, Japan)

Contact

Email contact@gramshift.com in English or Japanese. We reply within 7 business days, usually sooner. Please include your Windows version (Settings > System > About), your Stream Deck app version, the name of the action, and what the key and the Status line in its settings show.

Read this first: what the plugin covers, and what it does not

It covers the classic startup entries only. The plugin reads the programs registered under "Run" in the registry (yours and the ones for all users) and the files in the two Startup folders. It does not read, count or change the startup tasks of Store apps, services or scheduled tasks. Task Manager and Windows Settings list Store apps too, so their list can be longer than the number on the key. On our test PC, Windows Settings listed 19 startup apps: the 11 the plugin showed, and 8 Store apps.

Only your own entries can be switched. An entry registered for all users of the PC needs administrator rights. The plugin never asks for them (it never shows an elevation prompt): it shows such an entry with needs admin and a press changes nothing. Use Task Manager or Windows Settings for those.

No promise of speed. Switching a startup entry off stops Windows from starting that program when you sign in. Whether Windows then starts faster depends on the program; we promise nothing and measured nothing about it. Off or on takes effect at the next sign-in: a program that is running now keeps running.

This is not security software. New Startup App looks at the places above only, about once a second while its key is on a page that is showing. A program can start with Windows in other ways (a service, a scheduled task, a Store app task and more) and the plugin will not see those. It tells you what was registered; it does not judge it and does not block it.

Get started

Install the plugin from the Elgato Marketplace. In the Stream Deck app, find Startup Apps Keys for Windows in the action list and drag an action onto a key.
Startup Apps shows for example 7/11: 7 of 11 entries are on. Press it to open the Startup page of Windows Settings (read "Opening the Startup page" below first).
Drag Startup Toggle onto a key, open its settings and choose an entry in the list. The key shows its name and ON or OFF. Press to switch it off, press again to switch it on.
Drag New Startup App onto a key. It shows 0 until a program registers itself to start with Windows; then it shows NEW and the name. Press it once you have seen it.

The actions

Startup Apps: how many entries are on, of how many. An entry that is not marked off but whose program file does not exist can not start: it is not counted as on, and the small line says for example 1 no file. A press opens ms-settings:startupapps; the plugin writes nothing on that page.
Startup Toggle: for one entry you choose. The list in the settings names each entry the way Windows does (the description of its program, or the program's file name) and adds the entry's own name in brackets when that is different. Entries for all users are in the list too, marked "read only".
New Startup App: compares the entries that are registered now with the ones it has shown as seen. An entry counts as seen by its name and by a fingerprint of what it starts, so these are NEW: a new name, a known name whose command (or Startup folder file) was replaced, and an entry that was removed and registered again. The first time the key is shown, everything already registered counts as seen, so it starts at 0 (it waits with that while one of the places can not be read). A press marks everything as seen. It changes nothing in Windows.

What exactly is written, and how it is put back

Windows keeps "enabled / disabled" for a startup entry as a 12-byte value under ...\Explorer\StartupApproved, named like the entry. The plugin writes that one value for the entry of the key you pressed, under HKEY_CURRENT_USER, and nothing else. The entry itself (its command, its shortcut file) is never edited, removed or added.
It writes what the Settings page of Windows 11 writes (we watched it do so): the first four bytes that are there are kept, only the lowest bit of the first byte is set (off) or cleared (on); then the time (off) or zeros (on).
Before writing, the plugin remembers what was there: the old value, or "there was none". If the value it finds at the next press is still the one it wrote, that press puts back exactly what was there before (it removes its value again if there was none). Only then: if the value is not the one it wrote, or the old value was not the usual 12 bytes, the press simply switches from what is there. If someone changed it in between (you in Task Manager or Settings, or another program), the plugin switches from what is there now.
After every write the plugin reads the value again. The key always shows what was read. If the value read is not the one written, the key says FAILED and nothing is remembered.
If you remove the plugin while an entry is switched off, it stays off: switch it on again in Task Manager (Startup apps) or in Settings > Apps > Startup.

Opening the Startup page: what Windows does there by itself

Pressing Startup Apps opens the Startup page of Windows Settings. We saw this on our test PC: when that page opened, Windows itself wrote an "off" mark for every entry whose program file no longer exists (leftovers of uninstalled programs; the page lists them with an empty name, Off). Those entries change from "no file" to Off, so the small line on the key changes (for example from 2 off, 2 no file to 4 off); the number of entries that are on stays the same, because the key never counted them as on. Windows wrote those marks, not the plugin: the plugin writes nothing on that page, and it would have happened the same way if you had opened the page from the Start menu. Such an entry could not start anyway. If you install that program again later, look at its entry: it may still be Off.

The plugin calls a program file missing only when it is sure: the command names a full path on the Windows drive and no file is there. For anything it can not judge (a bare program name, a relative path, a network path, another drive) the entry counts as on.

When an entry disappears or changes

GONE: the chosen entry is not registered any more (its program was uninstalled, or it removed its own entry). A press does nothing. Windows leaves the old on/off value behind in that case; the plugin does not touch it.
CHANGED: an entry with the same name is there, but it starts something else than when you chose it (another command line, or another file in the Startup folder). The plugin keeps a short fingerprint (a hash, not the command) with the key to notice this. A press does nothing until you press Accept in the key's settings. Program updates that change their own command line cause this too.

What we tested, and what we did not

Measured on Windows 11 (build 26300), signed in without administrator rights, with trial entries we made ourselves and removed again (a "Run" value and a Startup folder file whose command does nothing). What Windows shows was read from the Startup page of Windows Settings with an accessibility reader.

An entry with no on/off value: Settings shows it On. First byte 03: Off. First byte 02: On. Settings itself, switching an entry that had no value, wrote 01 and the time for Off and twelve zero bytes for On. A Startup folder file is handled the same way, with the value named like the file.
Windows did not overwrite a value we wrote (read again after six seconds and after opening Settings).
The plugin as shipped, running on the Stream Deck app's own Node.js under a test stand-in for the Stream Deck app: the count on the key was the count worked out by a separate program; a newly added trial entry showed as NEW; a press switched the trial entry off and a separate program (reg.exe) read it as off; the next press removed the value again; with the value 03 written from outside the key said OFF, a press wrote 02, the next press wrote 03 back; after the trial entry was deleted the key said GONE and a press wrote nothing. Every other value of the Run keys and the StartupApproved keys was compared before and after, byte for byte, and was identical.
The names: for the 8 entries Windows Settings showed with a name, the plugin showed the same name.
Something Windows does by itself: when the Startup page of Settings was opened, Windows wrote an "off" value for the two entries on the test PC whose program file no longer exists and that had no mark yet (see "Opening the Startup page" above). Opening the page again later changed nothing more.
A mark that is not 12 bytes long (we have not seen one on a real PC; tested with a simulated Windows): the key switches it like any other, but does not try to write the odd mark back.

Not tested: Windows 10; Windows on ARM; a PC managed by an organization (policies can add startup entries the plugin does not read, or block the registry); signing out and in again to watch a switched-off entry stay off (we checked what Windows Settings shows, not the next sign-in); Task Manager's own list (we read the Settings page); a real shortcut in the Startup folder with the plugin as shipped (the folder rule was measured with Windows Settings, the plugin's folder handling with a simulated Windows); any specific commercial program.

What the keys show

On the key	Meaning
`7/11`, `4 off`	Startup Apps: 7 of the 11 entries read are on, 4 are off.
`7/11`, `2 off, 2 no file`	2 entries are marked off; 2 more are not marked off but their program file does not exist, so they can not start and are not counted as on.
`ON` (no blue frame), `file not found`	Startup Toggle: the entry is marked on, but the program file in its command does not exist. A press marks it off.
`not all read` (amber)	One of the places could not be read just now. The Status line in the settings names it.
`ON` (blue frame), `press: off`	Startup Toggle: the entry starts with Windows. A press switches it off.
`OFF`, `press: on`	The entry is switched off. A press switches it on.
`ON` / `OFF`, `needs admin`	An entry for all users. Shown only; a press changes nothing.
`GONE`, `not in startup`	The chosen entry is not registered any more.
`CHANGED`, `check settings`	Same name, but it starts something else now. Open the settings and press Accept if that is fine.
`FAILED`, `still ON`	The value read after the press was not the one written (something blocked or undid the write).
`?`, `can not read`	The place the chosen entry is registered in could not be read just now.
`NEW` (amber) and a name, `+2 more`	New Startup App: registered since you last pressed the key. A press marks it as seen.
`0`, `nothing new`	Nothing has been registered since you last pressed the key.
`--`, `reading…`	The plugin is waiting for its saved list from the Stream Deck app.
`Windows only` / `reinstall plugin`	The PC is not Windows / the plugin could not load its Windows part: remove it and install it again.

Questions

The number is lower than in Task Manager. Task Manager also lists the startup tasks of Store apps. The plugin does not read those in this version.

An app I know starts with Windows is not in the list. It probably starts as a service, a scheduled task or a Store app task. Those are not covered in this version.

Can it remove an entry, or add one? No. It only switches entries off and on.

Can it switch entries for all users? No. That needs administrator rights and the plugin never asks for them.

I switched an entry off and the program still runs. It was already running. The switch applies the next time you sign in to Windows.

New Startup App showed NEW after an update of a program. Some programs register a new entry when they update (some put a number in the entry's name). The key shows what was registered; press it once you have seen it.

Does New Startup App work while the key is not showing? It reads only while its key is on a page that is showing on a connected Stream Deck. What was registered meanwhile is shown as NEW when the page is shown again.

Privacy

To show and switch startup entries the plugin reads the registry keys and folders named above on your PC, and writes one on/off value when you press a Startup Toggle key. Nothing is logged or sent to us or to any online service. See the Privacy Policy.