Is there a way to automatically close an application after it launches in startup?

[VideogameDisliker]

I have Razer Synapse, RGBFusion, and a few other programs on startup to set RGB and profiles on my pc/peripherals, and I'm wondering if there's something I can download, configure, etc. that would close these programs automatically after they've launched.

[izz]

Just turn launch at startup off?

[Kilrah]

4 minutes ago, izz said:

Just turn launch at startup off?

They probably need to be started to apply the settings, but OP wants to then close them as they don't need to be kept running afterwards.

[DrMacintosh]

Is launched minimized not an option? 

[VideogameDisliker]

29 minutes ago, DrMacintosh said:

Is launched minimized not an option? 

Thanks for the reply; it is and it's what I have done, but I'm looking for a way for the programs to be terminated after launching minimized.

I'm basically looking for an automated "open task manager, select the program, hit 'end task'."

[VideogameDisliker]

57 minutes ago, Kilrah said:

They probably need to be started to apply the settings, but OP wants to then close them as they don't need to be kept running afterwards.

You are correct, thanks for clarifying. I'm basically looking for an automated way to emulate booting task manager and hitting "end task" on a program after it's already launched.

[DSD27]

I have thought about that many times. But it's not that time consuming to close them manually 

[Avocado Diaboli]

Create a batch or powershell script that closes the applications you want to close. Then open the task scheduler and create a task that runs after login. You can delay the task in the scheduler. Here's a guide on how to do that: https://www.maketecheasier.com/start-scheduled-tasks-with-delay-windows/

[Mark Kaine]

imo this may or may not work depending on the program because some of these programs will stop doing whatever they do after being closed, but then again i guess you checked that.

 

and i knew you could write a batch file, but no idea how... so the post above is probably helpful. 

 

 

[VideogameDisliker]

16 hours ago, Avocado Diaboli said:

Create a batch or powershell script that closes the applications you want to close. Then open the task scheduler and create a task that runs after login. You can delay the task in the scheduler. Here's a guide on how to do that: https://www.maketecheasier.com/start-scheduled-tasks-with-delay-windows/

This is what I needed, thanks a lot.

 

For future readers, this video will help you make a batch file to close programs: 

 

[izz]

On 11/14/2022 at 5:19 PM, Kilrah said:

They probably need to be started to apply the settings, but OP wants to then close them as they don't need to be kept running afterwards.

Ah, this makes sense. Thanks.

[MrHankScorpio]

Old thread, apologies for bump, but it came up #1 in my google search.
I also wanted to kill an app on startup, specifically the RGB controller for my ram (G.Skill's Trident Z app). For some reason the RGB settings don't stay between power cycles, but opening the app (even without hitting "apply") is enough to reapply them. So I just want the app to open and close.

The info is all here already but could use a more detailed walkthrough. Opening the app is easy, just add it to startup. But to auto-close the app you need two things:

1. a batch script that closes the app(s)
2. a scheduled task that automatically runs said batch

The batch script is easy. Make a text file, name it .bat instead of .txt and just add this:

@echo off

taskkill /F /IM gaming.exe /IM hid.exe

Where "gaming.exe" and "hid.exe" are the two apps that control the Trident Z app. Easiest way to check what your apps are named by looking a the "Details" tab in Task Manager while they're running. As I found, the names may not be intuitive (seriously, "gaming.exe"?)

Now you could just double click that .bat file and it would work, but why not automate it? So next we schedule the task that runs that. 

1. Open Task Scheduler and select Create Task... and name it
2. Under Triggers tab, create New.
3. I selected Begin the task: "At log on", but you could choose startup, etc
4. Under Advanced Settings, add a Delay. Our action doesn't know if the app is open yet so we just wait until we're pretty sure it's open. I chose 30 seconds.
5. Now go to the Actions tab and create a new action
6. Select "Start a program" from the dropdown and then navigate to your .bat file.

That's it! Test it out and see if it works.

There is a more advanced way to do it where in step 4, rather than choosing a delay you create a custom XML event based on when the app actually opens. The problem is that the event would then trigger even when you intentionally open the app. So pick your poison, imo using log on delay is easier. But if your machine has a slow startup you might need to up the delay time. Or if you're impatient you could re-run the batch script multiple times at a few intervals.