Automatically Open Applications

When I fire up my computer Id like Outlook and Excel to open automatically. Is there a way to make them do that?

No problem. Click on Start and then go to All Programs where youll see all your applications listed alphabetically. Youll find the Outlook and Excel icons under Microsoft Office (see screenshot below).

Place your cursor over the Outlook icon and, using the right button, drag it down to the Startup icon. Then do the same with the Excel icon (see screenshot).

Now, when you reboot, both programs will launch automatically.

If you dont want them to launch automatically, but you do want an easy way to start them, there are at least two ways to do that. You can right-drag the application icon to your taskbar on the bottom of your screen (see screenshot).

Or you can right-drag the icon into the shortcut menu, which you access by clicking on the Start button. Notice in the screenshot below, in addition to several applications, I have even added a shortcut for an Excel file.

Another way to place an application in the above shortcut menu is to right-click on it, producing this menu:

Click on Pin to Start menu to add an item

and on Unpin from Start menu to remove it.