Make a custom PopMenu the default at boot up

[fhammer]

Following the Winbatch Help instructions, I have created a custom PopMenu directory, containing the necessary files for a custom PopMenu. It works great, as long as (after boot up) I manually close the default PopMenu, and then run Popmenu.exe from within my custom PopMenu directory.

I'm looking for a way to make my custom PopMenu the default at boot up.

I notice that my "Common" startup folder, contains a shortcut to PopMenuStartUp.exe in the WinBatch System folder.

I've tried a number of things, including changing the "Start In" parameter on the PopMenuStartUp.exe shortcut, but have so far been unsuccessful.

I would appreciate any help. Thanks.

[td]

The PopMenuStartup executable is in your Start Menu Startup folder because of UAC.  PopMenu is manifested to run with Requested Elevation Level of 'highestAvailable' and this causes problems when you start an executable at boot up with UAC prompting enabled.  PopMenuStartup is manifested as 'asInvoker' so you don't have boot time issues with PopMenu.  So you need to place a copy of PopMenyStartup.exe into your custom PopMenu folder and modify the Startup folder to point to the copy in your custom PopMenu folder.

[fhammer]

Thanks for responding td.

I tried your suggestion:

"...  place a copy of PopMenuStartup.exe into your custom PopMenu folder and modify the Startup folder to point to the copy in your custom PopMenu folder",

However, when I restart my Windows 10 computer, I still get the default PopMenu menu.

When I to replaced the shortcut in the "common" startup folder, I was givin a warning, but went ahead with the replacement.

Is it possible that there is something hard-coded in PopMenuStartup.exe, such that it always starts up with the files in the WinBatch system directory? Are there any command-line parameters for PopMenuStartup.exe? Should I have deleted the shortcut in the "common" startup folder and placed the new shortcut in my "user" startup folder?

Thanks again.

[td]

Thanks for responding td.

I tried your suggestion:

"...  place a copy of PopMenuStartup.exe into your custom PopMenu folder and modify the Startup folder to point to the copy in your custom PopMenu folder",

However, when I restart my Windows 10 computer, I still get the default PopMenu menu.

Not sure what you did.  But the easiest thing to do is go to your Start menu, click on the Startup folder and right click on the PopMenuStart.exe shortcut properties menu item.  Change the path to point to your PopMenuStartup.exe instead of on in the WinBatch system directory.  There is no need to worry about where the short cut file is located on the file system. You would also need to have the WIL interpreter DLL in you your directory or else PopMenuStartup.exe will not run.  It is a small-option, compiled WIL script.

When I to replaced the shortcut in the "common" startup folder, I was givin a warning, but went ahead with the replacement.

Is it possible that there is something hard-coded in PopMenuStartup.exe, such that it always starts up with the files in the WinBatch system directory? Are there any command-line parameters for PopMenuStartup.exe? Should I have deleted the shortcut in the "common" startup folder and placed the new shortcut in my "user" startup folder?

There is no 'hard-coded' path in PopMenyStartup.exe.  It simply does a standard search for the executable.  What I neglected to mention was that the WinBatch install sets an appPath for PopMenu in the registry.  You would need to modify the registry key and its value:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\App Paths\PopMenu.exe

But rather than do of the above a much easier approach would be to modify the PopMenu.ini file's GlobalMenu key to point to your custom menu file.  No moving of executable files or changing of shortcut or registry required. 

[fhammer]

Thanks td. Modifying the PopMenu.ini file in the start directory did the trick.

[td]

Good you got it working.  I should have mentioned using the GlobalMenu key in the first place.