AutoStart - Launch applications automatically when starting visual studio

• Download AutoStart2003.zip(for vs2003) - 8.7 KB
• Download AutoStart2005.zip(for vs2005) - 63.7 KB

Introduction

When I open visual studio to do some code work, I often need to run several utiltiy to help me make my work easy and with funs. I write this very simple addin to do these things automatically, when start visual studio, it load informations from an ini file, and launch the utility applications which I need, and close them when I exit visual studio.

Using the code

The code is very simple, there's only one class and several functions.

first the class CAppInfo, it descript the application we want to run:

class CAppInfo
{
public:
 string strWindowTitle;    // the main window title
 string strAppPath;    // the application's exe file path
 BOOL bLoaded;    // indicate if the application is launch by this addin
 CAppInfo & operator =(CAppInfo & ai)
 {
  strWindowTitle = ai.strWindowTitle;
  strAppPath = ai.strAppPath;
  bLoaded = ai.bLoaded;
  return * this;
 }
};

Next one variable and four functions in CConect:

protected:
    list<cappinfo> AppList;    // store the applications info loaded from an ini file

    void LoadAppInfo(LPCTSTR strIniFile);    // load applications info from ini file
    void LaunchApp(CAppInfo & ai);    // launch an application
    void StartApp(LPCTSTR strIniFile);    // load applications info from ini file and launch then all
    void EndApp(void);    // close all launched applications 

Their functions descript in the comment.

Last, call our functions at appropriate time, in CConnect class:

STDMETHODIMP CConnect::OnStartupComplete (SAFEARRAY ** /*custom*/ )
{
    StartApp(STRINIFILE);
    return S_OK;
}

STDMETHODIMP CConnect::OnBeginShutdown (SAFEARRAY ** /*custom*/ )
{
    EndApp();
    return S_OK;
}

That's all.

The ini file

It use an ini file named AutoStart.ini to descript the applications info, it must be put to your system folder(C:\\windows or something like that).

if you want to launch "n" applications, it must have n sections. The sections named [Application 1], [Application 2], ..., [Application n], each section descripted an application. Below is a sample:

[Application 1]
ClassName=AfxFrameOrView42s
WindowTitle="Perfect Keyboard - cpp.4pk"
AppPath="E:\Program Files\Perfect Keyboard AS\pk32.exe"
[Application 2]
ClassName=HamsinClipboardClassName
AppPath="E:\Program Files\Hamsin Clipboard\HamsinClipboard.exe"

We use "ClassName" and "WindowTitle" to find the application's main window so we can close it by send a WM_CLOSE message when we exit the visual studio, so they are optional.

We need the "AppPath" to launch the application, so it necessary.

History

2007-05-16 original version posted.