Making a program run at Windows startup

It is often desirable to have a program start itself automatically when Windows starts. This can be accomplished with some very simple steps:

1. On your programs Settings or Preferences form, place a TCheckBox with the caption Run at Windows Startup.
2. In the forms uses clause, include the unit Registry.
3. In the TCheckBox On Click event, include the following code:

    procedure TForm1.TCheckBox1Click(Sender: TObject);
    var Registry: TRegistry;
    begin
      Registry := TRegistry.Create;
      Registry.RootKey := HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE; 
      Registry.OpenKey('Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run', false);
      If TCheckBox1.Checked then
        Registry.WriteString(Application.Title, Application.ExeName)
      else
        Registry.DeleteValue(Application.Title);
      Registry.CloseKey;
      Registry.free;
    end;

4. To ensure that the TCheckBox displays the current status of the function when the form is displayed, we need to insert the following code into the forms On Show event:

    procedure TForm1.FormShow(Sender: TObject);
    var Registry : TRegistry;
    begin
      Registry := TRegistry.Create;
      Registry.RootKey := HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE; 
      Registry.OpenKey('Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run', false);
      CheckBox1.Checked := Registry.ValueExists(Application.Title);
      Registry.CloseKey;
      Registry.free;
    end;

   This code simply checks to see if the run command for the appllication has been inserted into the registry. If it has, the the TCheckBox is checked, otherwise it is not.

That is all there is to it.