How to Start a PowerShell Script in the Background at Windows Startup

Tue, Jan 14, 2020

• Create a script and place it in C:\Users\name\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\Startup\

• Fill the script with:

  Start-Process -FilePath "C:\Users\name\bin\gost-windows-amd64.exe" -ArgumentList "-L=", "-F=" -RedirectStandardOutput "C:\Users\name\bin\gost-windows-amd64.log" -RedirectStandardError "C:\Users\name\bin\gost-windows-amd64.err" -WindowStyle Hidden
  

Note: Start-Process seems to perform a fork-like action, and by default, it opens a new PowerShell window to execute. That’s why -WindowStyle Hidden is added at the end. You can’t use -NoNewWindow here because it only prevents the creation of a new window for executing Start-Process, but the old window will not exit.
Note 2: After the old window exits, the forked process seems to become an orphan and is managed elsewhere, so permissions, such as network connection permissions, might need to be requested again.