User Startup Programmes in Debian

I've always loved to start programmes automatically. Just boot up the computer, maybe even log in automatically if it's a desktop at home, and start all the programmes you need. It took me quite a while, but I figured out the one and only, perfect way to do that: *.desktop files.
Let's go to our applications folder, which should contain most of the *.desktop files responsible for your Applications menu.

cd /usr/share/applications/

Let's assume you want to autostart guake. Check for folder contents with ls or find the programme you want to auto start with ls | grep guake. Then, copy that file to your autostart folder.

cp guake.desktop ~/.config/autostart/

Done.

Also check out the Desktop Application Autostart specification if you're interested.


Originally published on 2013-01-31 08:19.