Create Profiles to start or stop programs in bulk on Windows

Martin Brinkmann
Jan 4, 2015
Software
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When I start my Windows PC in the morning, I load the browsers Firefox and Chromium, the email client Thunderbird and the RSS reader Quite RSS right away.

While I could add those programs to the startup of the system, I won't do that as I run other programs at times instead. In the evening, I may open Steam for example and Teamspeak to check who is online.

Simple Program Launching and Termination (Splat) is a free portable program for Windows that you can use to create profiles to run or stop multiple programs at once.

You can add as many programs as you want to each profile and define in detail what you want done with each of them.

The first thing you need to do after you run Splat for the first time is to add a profile to it. All you need to do is click on the add profile button and assign a name to it.

start stop programs in bulk

You can add a keyboard shortcut as well later on with a right-click on the profile and the selection of the key combination you want to use.

This leaves little to be desired in terms of supported keys and combination. You can even combine modifiers with the mouse if you prefer to do so.

launch shortcuts

A click on the insert entry button adds a new item to the profile. You select the desired action, target, arguments and working directory on the next screen.

The following actions are supported:

  1. Run if it is not already running.
  2. Run even if it is already running.
  3. Close application.
  4. Kill application.
  5. Start or Stop a service.
  6. Wait or delay.

The parameters may change depending on the action you choose. If you select wait or delay for instance, you can select the value in seconds if you select wait or a value the cpu needs to drop under if you selected delay.

Note that you need elevated privileges if you select the start or stop services option in the program. All provided options are self-explanatory.

entries

You can combine as many actions as you want. Profiles can be run with the hotkey if you have set one and if Splat is running, or by selecting a profile and clicking on the launch button in the interface.

I already mentioned a couple of situations where a program launcher like this may come in handy. It can also be used for other things, for instance to close programs or services before you run a program or gram that requires all resources.

You could also create a profile to reverse the effect that the other profile caused to run the closed programs and stopped services again.

Other applications include launching a set of websites in a browser of choice, loading a development environment, or even running a series of batch scripts one after the other.

Verdict

Splat is a useful program for the Windows operating system that can save you a lot of time. It is easy to setup and very powerful in terms of the functionality it provides you with.

Summary
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Software Name
Splat
Operating System
Windows
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Comments

  1. Joe said on February 1, 2015 at 1:48 am
    Reply

    A bit late for the party.

    It’s a pity. This program does not work on Windows 8.1.

    1. Ardwych said on January 1, 2019 at 6:50 am
      Reply

      It certainly works on Windows 10.
      2019 and beyond.

  2. PhoneyVIrus said on January 9, 2015 at 1:34 am
    Reply

    The most important thing I was looking for was Batch files and it was at the very end :) I usually would use Start My Day but it’s Windows 7 only and hated using something that didn’t have anymore life left to it, plus Splat’s portable!

    Thanks for the Super Tutorials Martin

    http://www.thewindowsclub.com/start-my-day-utility-automates-daily-windows-tasks

    1. Martin Brinkmann said on January 9, 2015 at 8:55 am
      Reply

      You are welcome ;)

  3. Ken Saunders said on January 6, 2015 at 3:53 am
    Reply

    I agree, this is interesting.
    I have Firefox and Thunderbird in the Startup folder as well as others but sometimes I close everything in order to free-up resources for games, etc but then have to start the other programs again later on so this might work out well for me for that as well as for working on graphics when I use certain programs for that, and for editing audio and video.
    I’m guessing that I can execute a profile and go and grab a snack or something while the programs load.

    Thanks.

  4. Leandro said on January 5, 2015 at 2:53 pm
    Reply

    Cool.
    I asked the developer to add a function to WAIT for a specific “program.exe” to finish.

  5. Ray said on January 4, 2015 at 9:22 pm
    Reply

    I use Executor for my program launcher. It’s mainly a keyword-based launcher, but you can use it to auto-start apps when Executor is launched.

  6. Hugues said on January 4, 2015 at 8:58 pm
    Reply

    Very interestng !! Thank you for the post and the very complete review.

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