Active window at startup

[hnref]

I have Internet Explorer launch automatically at startup. However, after
everything has finished starting, the IE window is inactive. Is there a way
to make it active so that it can be used right away without having to click
on it?

 

[Pegasus [MVP]]

I have Internet Explorer launch automatically at startup. However, after
everything has finished starting, the IE window is inactive. Is there a
way
to make it active so that it can be used right away without having to
click
on it?

You need to tell us HOW you launch IE automatically.

 

[hnref]

Sorry, should have thought about that...I have an IE shortcut in the Startup
folder of the user account that the computer is always logged in to. This
user account is listed as "limited account".

 

[Pegasus [MVP]]

OK. And what else is in this folder?

Sorry, should have thought about that...I have an IE shortcut in the
Startup
folder of the user account that the computer is always logged in to. This
user account is listed as "limited account".

 

[hnref]

There's nothing else in the folder, but there are other programs that launch
at startup and run in the background, I assume from a registry key.

I'm also curious to learn if the IE window "should" be inactive by default
in a similar situation or is it more likely that I have something set wrong?

 

[Pegasus [MVP]]

Process windows are made active in order of their launch. Since your IE
window is inactive, there is probably some other application that gets
launched later on, pushing IE to the background. You should be able to see
it while watching your screen during the startup process.

A simple way to get over the issue is to delay the start of IE by x seconds.
You could do it by deleting IE from the Startup menu and putting this batch
file in its place:
@echo off
set delay=30
ping localhost -n 30 > nul
"c:\Program Files\Internet Explorer\iexplore.exe" www.google.com

Another way is to use cmdow to force IE to the top. You can download this
tool from here: http://www.commandline.co.uk/cmdow/.