We all have different applications and tools we use for work or school. For example, as a writer I might have a word processor open along with an image resizer tool and also my browser to do my research and to make my posts. These are the same apps that I open on a daily basis for work.

The obvious way to launch these apps would be to click them one by one whenever the computer is turned on or when I need to start work, but what if there was a more efficient way of launching these apps? What if with a single-click, you could actually launch all these apps at once?

If that sounds like a power user move you’d like to learn, it’s actually not that difficult. All you need to do is create a batch file that you only need to run once and it will open all the programs you need at once. Here’s what you need to do.

Step 1 – Get The File Locations

  1. Click the Windows Key and look for the program you want to add to your batch file
  2. Right-click it, go to More and select “Open file location”
  3. Right-click on the file in the File Explorer window and select Properties
  4. Under the Shortcut tab, look for Target an copy the text inside of it
  5. Click OK

Step 2 – Creating A .bat File

  1. Open Notepad
  2. At the top of Notepad, type “@echo off” (without quotes)
  3. On the next line, type “cd” (without quotes) and paste the text after it
  4. Bring the last part of the path name with the “.exe” to the next line and add “start” (without quotes) in front of it
  5. Repeat the steps above for all the programs you want added to the batch file
  6. Hit enter to create a line break and type “exit” (without quotes)
  7. Your Notepad contents should look something like the screenshot at the top
  8. Once all the file paths to the programs are added to Notepad, go to File > Save
  9. Under “Save as type” select “All Files”
  10. Choose a name for the file and make sure you add the “.bat” extension
  11. Click Save
  12. Now whenever you want to open all those files at once, simply double-click the .bat file and it will run them

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