Gfilui

For 11.04 and newer see here: How do I start applications automatically on login?

For older versions: If the program you wish to run on startup is in the Applications menu, you can drag-and-drop it into the Startup Applications window to add it to the list.

Launch Startup applications from Dash

Click on Startup Applications

And then click on add

Type the name of the program, browse to the command, and then click add.

Addition: Here is a sample that I use to autostart Guake - the Gnome version of Yakuake:

Put this in the 'command' box.

sh -c "sleep 120s; guake"

This starts guake automatically, but waits 2 mins before doing so. You can change the 120 to whatever you wish.

Edit:

For 14.04 and 16.04:

Type Startup in Dash, and run Startup Application form there

And then just follow the rest of the steps.

(please note that, if you are using ubuntu in another language, "startup" might not find the correct program. Try another search that is in your language)

Both Unity and Xfce4 have GUI programs that allow you to control startup applications.

For Unity:

For Xfce4 Startup tool is available in Settings > Session and Startup

Image courtesy of Xubuntu Geek xubuntugeek

If the GUI is not what you want, and you want is more advance control, then you can put .desktop files in the ~/.config/autostart/ directory for Xfce4, and a .desktop file in ~/.config/autostart for Unity to run applications after a user login.

Check this question to get more help on creating .desktop files:

• How can I edit/create new launcher items in Unity by hand?

Also note if you want a startup application to start only in XFCE, but not in Unity, you have to put the line OnlyShowIn=XFCE in the .desktop file. It is OnlyShowIn=Unity for a Unity only application.

You might want to start it from a CLI via:

$ gnome-session-properties

(just in case you're not running GNOME ;))

You can use GNOME Startup Application.

Click the Add button and then add the full command to open the application you want. If you don't know the path of the command you can do

which name_of_commmand

Also to put a BATCH FILE into start up applications to run after user login....
type at the command line in start up applications in the field Command:

gnome-terminal -e "/batch-path/batch-name.sh" 

• 
  gnome-terminal: open the terminal after user login with current user privileges


• 
  -e: set the terminal to execute the batch file


• 
  /batch-path/batch-name.sh: is the batch full path and full name

Remember than the file batch permissions to set the flag Allow executing file as a program to ON.

Take a look at $XDG_CONFIG_DIRS/autostart directory:

$ echo $XDG_CONFIG_DIRS/autostart
/etc/xdg/xdg-kde-plasma:/usr/share/upstart/xdg:/etc/xdg/autostart

which says there are 3 directories in this example. I wanted to prune the nautilus entry

sudo rm /etc/xdg/autostart/nautilus-autostart.desktop

otherwise if you can add it, create a Desktop entry file: sudo touch /etc/xdg/autostart/my-shell-autostart.desktop add these contents:

[Desktop Entry]
Name=foo
Terminal=false
Exec=/path/shell.sh
Type=Application
Icon=/path/icon.png
Categories=Utility;

Ubuntu 13.10 with UNITY Instructions

To do this with a command that requires sudo is a bit tricky.

In my case, I wanted to disable the PSMOUSE driver using the command sudo rmmod psmouse to prevent a mouse click problem that randomly manifests itself. See Dealing with Mouse and Touchpad Freezes in Linux for more info on this problem. I got tired of entering it on every boot.

On my install, the ~/.config folder did not have an autostart sub-folder, so I created one. This enabled my Startup Applications Preferences settings to be saved.

In order to toggle visibility of hidden startup applications, you can use the following commands.

To show them :

sudo sed -i 's/NoDisplay=true/NoDisplay=false/g' /etc/xdg/autostart/*.desktop

To hide them :

sudo sed -i 's/NoDisplay=false/NoDisplay=true/g' /etc/xdg/autostart/*.desktop

Configure your command as per above posts in the Startup Applications Perferences window.

Name: Fix Mouse
Command: sudo rmmod psmouse
Comment: Fix Mouse

Then you have to edit the /etc/sudoers file using sudo visudo.
Add a line that contains the following info:

username ALL=(ALL) NOPASSWD: /sbin/rmmod

You must enter this line below the line which starts with %admin. I added my line to the end of the file.
It is IMPORTANT to use sudo visudo to edit this file as making a mistake will prevent you from being able to do any sudo commands at all. If that happens, boot in recovery mode and undo your edits, then try using sudo visudo.

Note:

Initially I tried using a bash script to run my the command indirectly, but this didn't work. I had to put sudo rmmod psmouse directly in the Edit Startup Program window.

For Ubuntu 12.04,

1. 
   

   Launch Startup Application from the top right menu

   
   
   

   

   
   


2. 
   

   Without clicking on Add, open Dash and type the application you want running at startup e.g. Skype

   
   
   

   

   
   


3. 
   

   Drag the application to the Startup application window. If Dash windows is too big that you can't drag your app outside, use the restore window button (shown in the previous image) at the top left corner. Final list looks like this:

   
   
   

   

   
   

You can use the feature to Remember Currently Running Applications in the System/Preferences/Startup Applications preferences window. Which (when enabled) will "remember" all the programs that you are using and will re-open them after a reboot or when starting the system for the first time in a day.

This is great when you don't have enough time to make notes of what were you doing the last time and you wish an application to open if it was running the last time.

If you wish to remove an application from this feature simply close it and go to this function and press the "Remember Currently Running Application" in order to refresh the list of the programs that will be opened the next time.

For a simple, portable way to do this, you can use Cron. Run crontab -e to edit your user's crontab; add @reboot command to run command on each boot.

Type "startup applications" in your Unity Dash and it will list you that application which you can click to open. After opening it, you can add your application there.

Alt+F2, then gnome-help ghelp:user-guide?gosstartsession-2.

Click Run, wait a sec, and then follow the directions.