Order in Which Applications Load from the StartUp Group

In the Windows 3.1 StartUp group, applications load in left-to-right sequence, with Windows-based applications taking precedence over MS-DOS- based applications, regardless of the order in which they appear in the StartUp group.

The Windows 3.1 StartUp group starts Windows-based applications beginning with the first icon in the group and moves from left to right, starting each Windows-based application in the first line. It then moves down a line, if applicable, and begins starting Windows-based applications in the same fashion. Startup skips over any MS-DOS-based applications that are placed between the Windows-based applications. If a switch appears on the command line for a Windows-based application, then it will load after the other Windows-based applications.

Startup then begins with the second MS-DOS-based application and moves from left to right, skipping over the already running Windows-based applications. After the last MS-DOS-based application in the StartUp group is started, startup goes back and starts the first MS-DOS-based application.

If the StartUp group contains MS-DOS-based applications only, startup begins loading the second application and does not start the first application in the group until the last application has been started.