Start Multiple Applications at once using a single Shortcut in Windows 11/10

Imagine you are working on some school or research project that involves you to make use of several programs. Everyday you have to launch the programs that are needed for the project manually by yourself. Instead of this, if the applications get started at a single go, it would definitely help the users to work efficiently by saving time. This can be done by adding few code snippets in a batch file and pointing it to the newly created shortcut on desktop. Whenever you need to start those applications, you just need to double-click the shortcut on desktop which will be like a savior. In this article we will help you on how to start multiple applications using shortcut at once.

Steps to follow to create a Shortcut for launching Multiple Applications

NOTE: In this tutorial, we are launching Audacity and Google Chrome as an example.

Before proceeding, please start the Notepad application from Start menu to note down the Target location of Programs.

Step 1: To get the Target location.

1. Right-Click on program icon on desktop.
2. Click Properties as shown below.

 

Step 2: In the Properties window

1. Select the path from Target and Press CTRL +C together to copy & paste it in Notepad.
2. Then, Click OK to close the Properties window.
3. Repeat the same with all the other applications to note down its target path.

 

Step 3: Create a Batch file.

• Open a new Notepad file.
• Copy Paste the following code

Note:- Please modify the target path in the below code according to applications that you use.

@echo off

cd "C:\Program Files\Audacity\"

start Audacity.exe

cd "C:\Program Files\Google\Chrome\Application\"

start chrome.exe

exit

Step 4: Save the above notepad file as batch file as shown below.

 

Step 5: Create a new Shortcut on Desktop.

• Go to Desktop & Right Click.
• Click on New and Select Shortcut from the context menu.

Step 6: In the window that pops up

Browse the path of Batch file that we had created previously.

Then, Click Next to proceed.

 

Step 7: Name the Shortcut appropriately.

Click Finish to create the Shortcut.

 

Step 8: To verify the Shortcut

• Right Click on Shortcut & Click Properties.
• Verify if Target is set to path of batch file or not.
• Click Change Icon and select the desired icon for the shortcut.
• Click OK on Change Icon window.
• Then, Close the Properties window by clicking OK.

 

Close All the running applications to test whether this shortcut works or not.

Then, Double Click on the shortcut on desktop.

This will launch all the applications mentioned in the Shortcut at once.

Hope this article was informative and helpful.

Thank you!