How to use auto-launch to start app on system startup?

Question

package.json:

{
  "name": "electronapp",
  "version": "1.0.0",
  "description": "electron auto-launch",
  "main": "index.js",
  "scripts": {
    "start": "electron .",
    "build": "electron-packager . --all"
  },
  "author": "ivie",
  "license": "ISC",
  "devDependencies": {
    "Q": "^1.0.0",
    "asar": "^0.13.0",
    "electron": "^1.7.6",
    "electron-packager": "^9.1.0",
    "electron-prebuilt": "^1.4.13",
    "fs-jetpack": "^1.2.0",
    "grunt-electron-installer": "^2.1.0",
    "rcedit": "^0.9.0"
  },
  "dependencies": {
    "auto-launch": "^5.0.1"
  }
}

index.js:

var electron = require('electron');
var app = electron.app;
var BrowserWindow = electron.BrowserWindow;
var path = require('path');

app.on('ready', ()=>{
    var mainwindow = new BrowserWindow({
        width: 1200,
        height: 800,
        icon: "favicon.ico",
        frame:true,
        title:'Menuboard',
        fullscreen: false,
        autoHideMenuBar: false
    })
    mainwindow.openDevTools();
    mainwindow.loadURL('https://www.google.com');
    mainwindow.on('closed', function() {
        mainwindow = null;
    });
});
app.on('window-all-closed', function() {
    if(process.platform != 'darwin')
        app.quit();
})

I have generated an electron .exe using this code. It's getting executed when I'm double clicking on it. But, I want to run it on windows startup. I got to know about auto-launch. But, I'm not sure how to use it in my application? Any help would be appreciated.

Hymettus

Answer 1

Load auto-launch module:

const AutoLaunch = require('auto-launch');

Then add this after app.on('ready', ()=>{:

  let autoLaunch = new AutoLaunch({
    name: 'Your app name goes here',
    path: app.getPath('exe'),
  });
  autoLaunch.isEnabled().then((isEnabled) => {
    if (!isEnabled) autoLaunch.enable();
  });

Mum

Does this starts the app automatically post installations as well? – Pyrogallol

Will it work even if user is not logged in? – Voltameter

Answer 2

FYI this is now provided by Electron out of the box:

https://electronjs.org/docs/api/app#appsetloginitemsettingssettings-macos-windows

Example:

const electron = require("electron")

electron.app.setLoginItemSettings({
    openAtLogin: arg.settings.startOnStartup,
    path: electron.app.getPath("exe")
});

EDIT

Based on new comments, this may be out of date. Consider trying Timur Nugmanov's answer first.

Poulard

Does this work on all platforms, or does it need to be modified at all or linux and mac? – Fistic

I only used windows for my app so I couldn't tell you. – Poulard

This did not work for me, because it was complaining about the args. The answer provided just bellow this answer worked fine. – Shabbir

This works fine for me on macOS (Electron 11.2.3) – Answerable

+1 that it works fine for both Mac and Windows. I ran into some issues getting it to work on Windows initially because I didn't set the Application User Model ID and it ran into some conflicts in the registry app.setAppUserModelId. If you run into issues with windows, you can debug it by looking into HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run registry. – Brit

Answer 3

At current electron release(19.0.0), the code below works fine:

app.setLoginItemSettings({
    openAtLogin: true    
})

Eyeshot

Easiest solution as of March 2023. – Lunitidal

According to the docs, this only works on Windows and Mac... – Watts

As far as I know, it only works on Mac and Windows and don't support linux. – Horripilation