Windows Tip: Create A Batch File To Open Multiple Programs At Once
Ever have the need to open more than one program or application at the same time?
Say it's the beginning of the month and time to pay those dreaded bills. You know you need Excel, Windows calculator and Firefox or Internet Explorer open. Instead of opening them up one by one, you can easily create a batch file that will open all three programs at once.
And while your at it, why not have Excel open the spreadsheet file you use for tracking your budget and the browser open to your Bank's home page. Here's how to do it…
First let's take a look at a batch file I created that will just open Excel, Calculator and Firefox:
NOTE: Examples and file paths are from Windows Vista. XP paths will probably be different for some programs as well as for MS Office (Office 2007 is used in the example).
start /d C:\Windows\System32\calc.exe
start /d "C:\Program Files\Mozilla Firefox" firefox.exe
start /d "C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office12" EXCEL.EXE
Pretty simple.
The above command, start tells Windows to open a separate window to run the specified program.
The /d switch tells start command the path of the program. For starting Excel and Firefox, notice that the paths are in quotes, which is needed when there is a space in the file path.
Now it's great that all three programs open, but since it's time to pay your bills, you need to have Excel open that budget spreadsheet and Firefox open to your Bank home page so you can log on and access you checking account.
Here's how the commands look in the batch file to do this:
start /d C:\Windows\System32\ calc.exe
start /d "C:\Program Files\Mozilla Firefox" firefox.exe https://www.bankofamerica.com
start /d C:\finance\spreadsheets budget.xls
To open Bank Of America home page with Firefox, just add the URL to end of the command as shown above using https://www.bankofamerica.com.
To open the Excel spreadsheet, budget.xls you don't need to first open Excel. budget.xls can be opened directly using the start command, as long as the extension or file type is associated to the program.
If you need Firefox to open more than one URL, say to Google, just add the URL like this (make sure you use a space in between URL's):
start /d "C:\Program Files\Mozilla Firefox" firefox.exe https://www.bankofamerica.com www.google.com
Now you're probably saying "that's great, but how do I create a batch file?".
That's the easy part.
- Just open up Notepad or your favorite text editor.
- Copy the commands from above and modify them to use which ever program or Office files you want open. Make sure when you copy file and folder paths that have spaces, to use quotes.
- Then save the file with any name and a .bat extension (make sure it's not saved using .txt as the file type extension)
Now when you want to open up multiple programs or applications, just double click on the batch file and you're ready to pay the bills 
.
Now, if I can only figure out how to get the calculator to open with a million dollars from my checking account….
Filed under Windows Tips, Windows Vista Tips by Watching The Net
Comments on Windows Tip: Create A Batch File To Open Multiple Programs At Once »
This is a cool tip. Every morning I open 6 applications and this has really saved me time. I am really enjoying this site.
I have one question.
I can't get the code below to start Excel and open a specific work book??
start /d "I:\Service\Service Systems\Customer Software DB\Software Sales and Billing DB 2007-2008.xls"
@Stephen Gilmartin
Thanks for the kind words.
Try using the command with out the /d option…
start "I:\Service\Service Systems\Customer Software DB\Software Sales and Billing DB 2007-2008.xls"
Let me know if that fixes it.
Hey dude very cool but only one thing tho, how to i open application type files or is that just something ill have to do myself
nvm i just realized that if i leave out the .exe or .app
nvm i just realized that if i leave out the .exe or .app it works*
Is There Any Way To Do This When The Files Have A Different Name Each Time? Namely, Override Vista's New Feature That Won't Allow Multiple Files Types To Be Opened At The Same Time Because The Same Program Cannot Open Them All? (Sorry For Crazy Caps… Researching On My Cell Phone)
@Susan
Give some examples of what you want open, and I'll see if it can be done.
Last, First 12345.dss -> Opens in ExpressScribe
Last, First 12345.tif -> Opens in MS Office Document Imaging
Last, First 12345.doc -> Opens in MS Word 03
=) Thanks for the help!!
good site, very nice tips, I am openning 8 applications in single shot everyday, it is saving lot of time.
Thanks,
Hey nice site working on my experiance with Batch files,
Here's my question:
I want to open 2 files in 1 program at the same time
Example:
A movie with my subtitles how to do this?
Thanks mam, just getting into learning batch commands.
There is one command i am looking for. I want to open a foder from a gui wat. Every time i try and open a folder it just selects it from in the cmd area.
If any1 knows how to oppen a folder from batch files. please send me an email. Thank you
Hey paul its real easy all you have to do is
c:\windows\explorer.exe "folder location"
Using your example, I tried a test to get IE open the CNN news page along with a couple other files. Since I don't have Firefox on my computer, I substituted the IE pathway. However, when I tried it, I get an error saying cannot find "Files/Internet" even though I put the entire path in quotes.
start /d “C:\Program Files\Internet Explorer” IEXPLORE.EXE http://www.cnn.com
Error: Windows cannot find 'Files/Internet'. Make sure you typed the name correctly, and then try again.
Okay, I discovered the problem, quite by accident. I copied and pasted your command line, changed the firefox info to the IE info and this time it worked. I tried the altered line alongside my original line and continued to get the error when it got to mine, although both lines appeared identical.
However, looking at my file in Notepad, I noticed a slight difference. Although I had typed both in Notepad in plain text, the quote marks on my file had curls on them, whereas yours were straight quote marks. I thought to myself, "No, that can't be it, but I changed out my quotes with yours, and TA-DA! It worked.
Since Notepad does not work with font types, I'm wondering how they turned out different. Whatever it was… it works.
Thanks for the tips! I have my batch file working perfectly with one website and four program files that open up together.
Is there a way to switch between opened applications with commands.
Anyone please help..
is there any way for giving command
i want to open my broadband connection at a specific time like 2 am daily automatically
the shortcut of connecting to Internet is in "network connections" i want to know that how to make a batch file for doing this
now i want to press the "connect button " so tell me how to do that
Anyone plz help me .
im not sure exactly how but there is a command thats executed whenever the internal (bios i think) time reaches the inputted time
thanks for this i open tons of firefox pages everytime i come home just put it in the startup directory
i had a small problem with a word file but i just put it straight into c:/ lol bad idea i know but it worked
thanks!!!
thnx for those comments i learned a lot from those comments..now i can open a folder with batch files..wating for a more complex commands list in tnis site..
Thanks for easy comments; I though creating batch files is a big difficult thing but by following those steps its very smooth ……….thanks a lot.
Hi,
I just want to know using a batch file how to open web page which prompts for username and password, say example gmail.
Please let me know the cmd/code that is used in a batch file to open web pages that needs username and password
Thanks in advance,
Sree.
@Stephen Gilmartin
I wonder if you should be using something like this:
start /d "I:\Service\Service Systems\Customer Software DB\Software Sales and Billing DB" 2007-2008.xls
Note that I contained the folder, and then located the .xls file outside the brackets. Does this work for you?