Installed stunnel from https://www.stunnel.org/downloads.html
https://www.stunnel.org/downloads/stunnel-5.69-win64-installer.exe

But where's the settings option to have it start at boot time?

Is there a start-at-boot script that comes with windows that I can just add
the path to the stunnel executable to?

On 5/22/23 10:28, this is what Woozy Song wrote:
> Installed stunnel from https://www.stunnel.org/downloads.html
> https://www.stunnel.org/downloads/stunnel-5.69-win64-installer.exe
>
> But where's the settings option to have it start at boot time?
>
> Is there a start-at-boot script that comes with windows that I can just add
> the path to the stunnel executable to?
Find or create a shortcut for the program, maybe already on desktop.
Copy it to:
C:/Users/<name>/AppData/Roaming/Microsoft/Windows/Start Menu/Programs/Startup

Any program link you put in that folder, like I do for thunderbird mail, will execute at startup.
--
Linux Mint 21.1 Cinnamon 5.6.8
Al

On 5/22/2023 10:28 AM, Woozy Song wrote:
> Installed stunnel from https://www.stunnel.org/downloads.html
> https://www.stunnel.org/downloads/stunnel-5.69-win64-installer.exe
>
> But where's the settings option to have it start at boot time?
>
> Is there a start-at-boot script that comes with windows that I can just add
> the path to the stunnel executable to?
>

If you go to a program files folder and right-click an EXE file in there,
the context menu will have a "Create Shortcut" option. This is a kind of softlink.
You can then drag and drop the shortcut, to another folder (make a copy). A shortcut
file, has a file extension of .lnk .

Examples of "interesting" target folders, are things like these.

shell:common startup <=== enter this in File Explorer bar, end up here, all users startup...

C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\Startup

shell:startup <=== enter this in File Explorer bar, end up here, your user startup...

C:\Users\username\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\Startup

You can see some mention of that, here.

https://www.marshallsoft.com/stunnel_manual.htm

Or here.

https://www.stunnel.org/mailman3/hyperkitty/list/stunnel-users@stunnel.org/thread/RM3KQXTWGFLGBIOYPH7ES3HM4VR5YEV3/

*******

There is some option to do this from Settings. But
when you look there, these are Metro Apps and not Win32 ones.
The OS may have a different way of staging these. Because of
course, everything about Metro Apps is non-standard. Stunnel
is unlikely to be a Metro App, as the developer apparently
is still in a WinXP era frame of mind. There is no particular
functional advantage to Metro Apps, and until win32 ones are
kicked to the curb, they're still the more flexible option.

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/change-which-apps-run-automatically-at-startup-in-windows-9115d841-735e-488d-e749-9ba301d441e6

*******

While you can see examples of shortcut links to Metro Apps in

explorer.exe shell:AppsFolder

you might notice that if you do Properties on one of those Shortcuts,
you cannot edit it. Which limits how creative you can be. You can copy
a Metro App shortcut to the desktop, maybe even throw it into one of the
Startup folders, but it's not quite as useful as doing that with a legacy
win32 application. Stunnel is a legacy win32 application, which also
happens to have a service option (a service being the equivalent of
a daemon on Linux). By editing a Shortcut file, you can do things
like add parameters to its command line when it runs in non-service mode.

I haven't tested any of this. Good luck.

Paul

In message <u4fu5p$26j8f$1@dont-email.me>, Woozy Song
<suzyw0ng@outlook.com> writes
>Installed stunnel from https://www.stunnel.org/downloads.html
>https://www.stunnel.org/downloads/stunnel-5.69-win64-installer.exe
>
>But where's the settings option to have it start at boot time?

I thought that there was an option to select that right at the end of
the Stunnel installation process, but I could be imagining it.

>
>Is there a start-at-boot script that comes with windows that I can just add
>the path to the stunnel executable to?

I think it used to be possible to add a startup item through msconfig,
but when I looked there it told me to look in Task Manager. There I
found a list of programs that were loaded at startup, but there didn't
seem an obvious way to add another entry. However a quick web search on
"startup folder" turned up this:

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/add-an-app-to-run-automatically-at-startup-in-windows-10-150da165-dcd9-7230-517b-cf3c295d89dd
--
John Hall "[It was] so steep that at intervals the street broke into steps,
like a person breaking into giggles or hiccups, and then resumed
its sober climb, until it had another fit of steps."
Ursula K Le Guin "The Beginning Place"

Woozy Song wrote:

> Installed stunnel
> But where's the settings option to have it start at boot time?

Create a task in Task Scheduler, with a trigger of "at startup" and
whatever action you need to start your tunnel.

Andy Burns <usenet@andyburns.uk> wrote:

> Woozy Song wrote:
>
>> Installed stunnel But where's the settings option to have it start at
>> boot time?
>
> Create a task in Task Scheduler, with a trigger of "at startup" and
> whatever action you need to start your tunnel.

Better to have the program load "at login". You cannot use them until
you login. You cannot get new-mail notifications until you login. You
cannot send e-mails until you login. Until you login, you can't do
anything on Windows except stare at the login screen.

Some folks configure Winows to automatically login; i.e., they don't
give a damn about security, so anyone that powers up their computer can
use it. They won't notice a difference between programs loaded at
startup and those loaded at login. Some folks use the default where
they must login before they get a Windows session. They may power their
computer, and login later, or logout of their Windows session to leave
the computer at the login screen. While outside a Windows session,
what's the point of leaving an e-mail client running? Perhaps there is
a point of running an e-mail client as a service (which means no UI),
but the client was designed as a UI to the *user*. An e-mail server
running at startup and without a login does make sense: you don't need
to be logged in to have the mail server do its job.

Paul <nospam@needed.invalid> wrote:

> Woozy Song wrote:
>
>> Installed stunnel ...
>> But where's the settings option to have it start at boot time?
>
> If you go to a program files folder and right-click an EXE file in
> there, the context menu will have a "Create Shortcut" option. This is
> a kind of softlink. You can then drag and drop the shortcut, to
> another folder (make a copy). A shortcut file, has a file extension
> of .lnk .
>
> Examples of "interesting" target folders, are things like these.
>
> shell:common startup <=== enter this in File Explorer bar, end up here, all users startup...
>
> C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\Startup
>
> shell:startup <=== enter this in File Explorer bar, end up here, your user startup...
>
> C:\Users\username\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\Startup
> ...

Yep, there are many folder shortcuts using the shell operator, like:

shell:common startup Startup folder for all users
shell:startup Startup folder for Windows account under which
you are currently logged into.
shell:appsfolder Where shortcuts to apps are stored (handy when
you want to create shortcuts to apps by copying
these shortcuts). You cannot edit these because
they are registry defined shortcuts, not .lnk files.

and a slew more as noted at:

https://www.softwareok.com/?seite=faq-Run-Command&faq=4

Some are defined in the registry at:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\User Shell Folders
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\User Shell Folders

You are not loading a shell when using the shell: operator. Those are
just pointers to folders, not commands as stated in the article.

Big Al writes:

>> Installed stunnel from https://www.stunnel.org/downloads.html
>> https://www.stunnel.org/downloads/stunnel-5.69-win64-installer.exe
>>
>> But where's the settings option to have it start at boot time?
>>
>> Is there a start-at-boot script that comes with windows that I can just add
>> the path to the stunnel executable to?
> Find or create a shortcut for the program, maybe already on desktop.
> Copy it to:
> C:/Users/<name>/AppData/Roaming/Microsoft/Windows/Start Menu/Programs/Startup
>
> Any program link you put in that folder, like I do for thunderbird mail, will execute at startup.

Is it just me or is that just about the dumbest hierarchy possible?

(1) C:\users\name (this makes sense)
(2) AppData (but what the user wants to do has nothing to do with data)
(3) Roaming (and what does roaming even mean for this kind of user?)
(4) Microsoft (the app has nothing to do with Microsoft either)
(5) Windows (duh. What other operating system would the user be on here?)
(6) Start Menu (what does it have to do with any menu?)
(7) Programs/Startup (finally, something that makes sense)

Why couldn't they have called it C:\users\name\Programs\Startup ?

On 5/22/2023 11:32 AM, Big Al wrote:
> On 5/22/23 10:28, this is what Woozy Song wrote:
>> Installed stunnel from https://www.stunnel.org/downloads.html
>> https://www.stunnel.org/downloads/stunnel-5.69-win64-installer.exe
>>
>> But where's the settings option to have it start at boot time?
>>
>> Is there a start-at-boot script that comes with windows that I can
>> just add
>> the path to the stunnel executable to?
> Find or create a shortcut for the program, maybe already on desktop.
> Copy it to:
> C:/Users/<name>/AppData/Roaming/Microsoft/Windows/Start
> Menu/Programs/Startup
>
> Any program link you put in that folder, like I do for thunderbird mail,
> will execute at startup.

In my experience, not if it requires administrator privileges.

On Mon, 22 May 2023 19:59:35 -0400, Bill <nonegiven@att.net> wrote:

>On 5/22/2023 11:32 AM, Big Al wrote:
>> On 5/22/23 10:28, this is what Woozy Song wrote:
>>> Installed stunnel from https://www.stunnel.org/downloads.html
>>> https://www.stunnel.org/downloads/stunnel-5.69-win64-installer.exe
>>>
>>> But where's the settings option to have it start at boot time?
>>>
>>> Is there a start-at-boot script that comes with windows that I can
>>> just add
>>> the path to the stunnel executable to?
>> Find or create a shortcut for the program, maybe already on desktop.
>> Copy it to:
>> C:/Users/<name>/AppData/Roaming/Microsoft/Windows/Start
>> Menu/Programs/Startup
>>
>> Any program link you put in that folder, like I do for thunderbird mail,
>> will execute at startup.
>
>In my experience, not if it requires administrator privileges.

administrator privileges is in the shortcut

KenW

On 5/22/2023 8:38 PM, KenW wrote:
> On Mon, 22 May 2023 19:59:35 -0400, Bill <nonegiven@att.net> wrote:
>
>> On 5/22/2023 11:32 AM, Big Al wrote:
>>> On 5/22/23 10:28, this is what Woozy Song wrote:
>>>> Installed stunnel from https://www.stunnel.org/downloads.html
>>>> https://www.stunnel.org/downloads/stunnel-5.69-win64-installer.exe
>>>>
>>>> But where's the settings option to have it start at boot time?
>>>>
>>>> Is there a start-at-boot script that comes with windows that I can
>>>> just add
>>>> the path to the stunnel executable to?
>>> Find or create a shortcut for the program, maybe already on desktop.
>>> Copy it to:
>>> C:/Users/<name>/AppData/Roaming/Microsoft/Windows/Start
>>> Menu/Programs/Startup
>>>
>>> Any program link you put in that folder, like I do for thunderbird mail,
>>> will execute at startup.
>>
>> In my experience, not if it requires administrator privileges.
>
> administrator privileges is in the shortcut

Do you have to hardcode the admin pwd in there with it, if you don't
boot as administrator?

>
>
> KenW

On Mon, 22 May 2023 21:13:32 -0400, Bill wrote:
> On 5/22/2023 8:38 PM, KenW wrote:
> > [quoted text muted]
> >>
> >> In my experience, not if it requires administrator privileges.
> >
> > administrator privileges is in the shortcut
>
> Do you have to hardcode the admin pwd in there with it, if you don't
> boot as administrator?
>

Not if the account you're running under is an
administrator. Even in such accounts, programs normally
run without admin privileges.

If you can open an administrative command prompt
https://brownmath.com/general/10tip.htm#CmdPromptAdmin
without entering a password, your account is an
administrator. But the fact that you must open an
administrative command prompt to perform certain
actions shows that the command prompt normally opens
without admin privileges. And it's the same for other
programs.

Note: There is a difference between _an_ administrator
account and _the_ administrator account. The former can
be your normal login account, if you created it that
way. The latter is a special dedicated account called
"Administrator", which is disabled by default.

<https://www.lifewire.com/enable-or-disable-
administrator-account-in-windows-10-5095293>

To be honest, I am not clear on the purpose of the
built-in Administrator account. In decades of Windows
use, I've never needed it.

--
Stan Brown, Tehachapi, California, USA
https://BrownMath.com/
Shikata ga nai...

Stan Brown wrote:

[snip]

>
> Note: There is a difference between _an_ administrator
> account and _the_ administrator account. The former can
> be your normal login account, if you created it that
> way. The latter is a special dedicated account called
> "Administrator", which is disabled by default.
>

The link was broken - it should be a single line like this, achieved by
enclosing it in angle brackets

<https://www.lifewire.com/enable-or-disable-administrator-account-in-windows-10-5095293>

>
> To be honest, I am not clear on the purpose of the
> built-in Administrator account. In decades of Windows
> use, I've never needed it.

I used to run a computer support business and I've seen several systems
(perhaps 20, out of a couple of hundred clients) showing the following
message:

"The User Profile Service failed the logon."

Enabling the built-in Administrator account allowed me to fix this
problem. See:

<https://www.expertreviews.co.uk/software/8070/how-to-fix-a-windows-10-8-7-or-vista-corrupt-user-profile-the-user-profile-service>

Scroll down to the section headed:

"How to fix a Windows corrupt user profile on Windows 8 or 7: Registry edit"

I've never been able to identify why the problem occurred in the first
place.

--
Graham J

In article <news:eg6vc2u38p99.dlg@v.nguard.lh>, VanguardLH <V@nguard.LH>
says...

> Better to have the program load "at login". You cannot use them until
> you login. You cannot get new-mail notifications until you login. You
> cannot send e-mails until you login. Until you login, you can't do
> anything on Windows except stare at the login screen.

Maybe the op can find a startup batch file which can have a line for each
program he wants started up "at login" where that _one_ batch file is the
only program he needs to worry about inserting into Windows bootup
procedures.

The batch file would just be a list of commands but where would it go?
--
Jim S

On Tue, 23 May 2023 00:44:33 -0700, Stan Brown wrote:
> Note: There is a difference between _an_ administrator
> account and _the_ administrator account. The former can
> be your normal login account, if you created it that
> way. The latter is a special dedicated account called
> "Administrator", which is disabled by default.
>
> <https://www.lifewire.com/enable-or-disable-
> administrator-account-in-windows-10-5095293>

On Tue, 23 May 2023 09:22:06 +0100, Graham J wrote:
>
> The link was broken - it should be a single line like this, achieved by
> enclosing it in angle brackets
>
> <https://www.lifewire.com/enable-or-disable-administrator-account-in-windows-10-5095293>

This depends on the news client. I _did_ enclose the link in angle
brackets, but either my news client or yours has a mind of its own
and broke it.

Realistically, I think the fault lies with Gravity. Not much I can do
about it. Gravity has a "Repair URL" menu item that automatically
repastes a link and passes it to the default browser. It's a pity
more news clients don't.

Just for fun, I'm trying pasting the link as a quote, with a
preceding ">" character:

> https://www.lifewire.com/enable-or-disable-administrator-account-
in-windows-10-5095293

and here, with preceding ">" and surrounding "<...>":

> <https://www.lifewire.com/enable-or-disable-administrator-account-
in-windows-10-5095293>

--
Stan Brown, Tehachapi, California, USA https://BrownMath.com/
Shikata ga nai...

On Tue, 23 May 2023 15:41:45 -0000 (UTC), Jim S wrote:
> Maybe the op can find a startup batch file which can have a line for each
> program he wants started up "at login" where that _one_ batch file is the
> only program he needs to worry about inserting into Windows bootup
> procedures.
>
> The batch file would just be a list of commands but where would it go?

Doesn't matter where the batch file goes, but the OP needs to create
a shortcut and then move it to
C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\StartUp
(If memory serves, Windows won't let you create a shortcut directly
in the start menu or subfolders.)

The target of the shortcut should be "cmd /c " followed by the path
and name of the batch file (including the .bat suffix).

--
Stan Brown, Tehachapi, California, USA https://BrownMath.com/
Shikata ga nai...

On 2023-05-23 20:07, Stan Brown wrote:
> On Tue, 23 May 2023 00:44:33 -0700, Stan Brown wrote:

> Just for fun, I'm trying pasting the link as a quote, with a
> preceding ">" character:
>
>> https://www.lifewire.com/enable-or-disable-administrator-account-
> in-windows-10-5095293
>
> and here, with preceding ">" and surrounding "<...>":
>
>> <https://www.lifewire.com/enable-or-disable-administrator-account-
> in-windows-10-5095293>

Arrives here broken (Thunderbird).

Notice the

] >>
] >

construct. Double angle one line, single the next.

This way with Thunderbird it works (and soft paragraph breaks):

<https://www.lifewire.com/enable-or-disable-administrator-account-in-windows-10-5095293>

--
Cheers, Carlos.

On Tue, 23 May 2023 21:49:50 +0200, Carlos E.R. wrote:
>
> This way with Thunderbird it works (and soft paragraph breaks):
>
> <https://www.lifewire.com/enable-or-disable-administrator-account-in-windows-10-5095293>

But that's what I did originally, and a PP complained that _that_
link was broken.

--
Stan Brown, Tehachapi, California, USA https://BrownMath.com/
Shikata ga nai...

On 2023-05-24 04:46, Stan Brown wrote:
> On Tue, 23 May 2023 21:49:50 +0200, Carlos E.R. wrote:
>>
>> This way with Thunderbird it works (and soft paragraph breaks):
>>
>> <https://www.lifewire.com/enable-or-disable-administrator-account-in-windows-10-5095293>
>
> But that's what I did originally, and a PP complained that _that_
> link was broken.
>

Because it arrived broken. I don't know why.

It arrived as

<https://www.lifewire.com/enable-or-disable-
administrator-account-in-windows-10-5095293>

two lines, and my Thunderbird doesn't detect it as a single URL.

--
Cheers, Carlos.

In article <MPG.3ed6a0d8956bea24990120@news.individual.net>, Stan Brown
wrote...
>
>
> ... Gravity has a "Repair URL" menu item that automatically
> repastes a link and passes it to the default browser.

Really? I use Gravity - where is that feature?

--

Phil, London

In article <MPG.3ed81e346f058e4f989a68@news.eternal-september.org>,
Philip Herlihy says...

> > ... Gravity has a "Repair URL" menu item that automatically
> > repastes a link and passes it to the default browser.
>
> Really? I use Gravity - where is that feature?
>

Right click on any body text and you will see it as an option in the
menu. I use it all the time.

Big Al wrote:

>> Installed stunnel from https://www.stunnel.org/downloads.html
>> https://www.stunnel.org/downloads/stunnel-5.69-win64-installer.exe
>>
>> But where's the settings option to have it start at boot time?
>>
>> Is there a start-at-boot script that comes with windows that I can just add
>> the path to the stunnel executable to?
> Find or create a shortcut for the program, maybe already on desktop.
> Copy it to:
> C:/Users/<name>/AppData/Roaming/Microsoft/Windows/Start Menu/Programs/Startup
>
> Any program link you put in that folder, like I do for thunderbird mail, will execute at startup.

Putting the shortcut created by stunnel into the startup folder starts
stunnel but it doesn't load the config file. Yet clicking the link does.

Any suggestions?

Right now, I still have to manually load the stunnel config file,
even as stunnel is starting up with the boot process now.

VanguardLH wrote:

> Better to have the program load "at login".

I would say that depends on the program ...

On 5/24/2023 11:55 AM, Woozy Song wrote:
> Big Al wrote:
>
>>> Installed stunnel from https://www.stunnel.org/downloads.html
>>> https://www.stunnel.org/downloads/stunnel-5.69-win64-installer.exe
>>>
>>> But where's the settings option to have it start at boot time?
>>>
>>> Is there a start-at-boot script that comes with windows that I can just add
>>> the path to the stunnel executable to?
>> Find or create a shortcut for the program, maybe already on desktop.
>> Copy it to:
>> C:/Users/<name>/AppData/Roaming/Microsoft/Windows/Start Menu/Programs/Startup
>>
>> Any program link you put in that folder, like I do for thunderbird mail, will execute at startup.
>
> Putting the shortcut created by stunnel into the startup folder starts
> stunnel but it doesn't load the config file. Yet clicking the link does.
>
> Any suggestions?
>
> Right now, I still have to manually load the stunnel config file,
> even as stunnel is starting up with the boot process now.
>

Shortcuts for Win32 programs, you can edit the "command line invocation"
in the shortcut, and pass parameters.

[Picture]

https://i.postimg.cc/C5rC2Jdb/shortcut-file.gif

In Google, look for an stunnel shortcut tutorial for Windows users...
The examples will include several shortcut files, each with
a different config file in the edited shortcut .lnk file.

https://www.marshallsoft.com/stunnel_manual.htm

When you pass a data file to a program, you need to
use an absolute path, or some way that the shortcut link
will be able to find the file. For example

"someprogram.exe" -config "C:\users\romane lettuce\Downloads\config.txt"

Since "Romane Lettuce" has a space character, the double quotes
around the whole thing, pass the entire lump of stuff as the filename.

Paul

Jim S <jim@jimXscott.co.uk> wrote:

> VanguardLH <V@nguard.LH> SAID ...
>
>> Better to have the program load "at login". You cannot use them until
>> you login. You cannot get new-mail notifications until you login. You
>> cannot send e-mails until you login. Until you login, you can't do
>> anything on Windows except stare at the login screen.
>
> Maybe the op can find a startup batch file which can have a line for each
> program he wants started up "at login" where that _one_ batch file is the
> only program he needs to worry about inserting into Windows bootup
> procedures.
>
> The batch file would just be a list of commands but where would it go?

See Paul's first reply to the OP for where are the startup folders. Or
do as Andy suggested in creating a scheduled task. However, once you
know where to put a shortcut to the .bat file to run all those commands,
you also know where to put shortcuts to other programs, like those you
listed in the .bat file.