How to automatically start JoyToKey during Windows startup?

Automatically start JoyToKey during reboot (Windows XP)

For Windows XP, it is very easy to start JoyToKey during PC start up. You just need to create a shortcut and put it in “Startup” folder as follows.

Go to Windows start menu, right-click “Startup” folder (in “All Programs”), and then select “Open” or “Open all users”, depending on whether you want to start JoyToKey only for yourself or for all users. Then, copy the shortcut to “JoyToKey.exe” into that folder. If you want to run JoyToKey as an administrator, right-click the shortcut, open “Property”, and select “Run this program as an administrator”.

Automatically start JoyToKey during reboot (Windows 10, 8, 7, Vista)

If you’re okay to start JoyToKey as a regular user privilege, you can use “Startup” folder explained above.

However, if you want to start it with an administrator privilege, it’s a bit tricky for Windows 10 (or 8, 7, Vista) due to UAC (User Access Control) restriction. Even if you select “Run this program as an administrator” in Startup folder, it’ll be ignored in order to protect PC from malwares. Instead, you can use “Task Scheduler” tool and create a task which runs at login time with highest privilege.

1. Open “Task Scheduler” from Start Menu -> Accessories -> System Tools -> Task Scheduler
2. Click “Create Basic Task…” to open task creation Wizard.
3. Enter the task name (e.g. “JoyToKey”)
4. Select the trigger “When I log on”
5. Select the action “Start a program”
6. Select “JoyToKey.exe” and finish creating the task
7. In the main window, go to “Task Scheduler Library” and find the newly created task (refer to the screen below).
8. Double click the task, and turn ON “Run with highest privileges” option in “General” tab
9. Similarly, go to “Settings” tab, and turn OFF “Stop the task if it runs longer than” and “If the running task does not end when requested, force it to stop”