Run a program on Windows startup

I had a shortcut to a batch file that needed to run on the startup of Windows 10 x64 Enterprise startup. All the various methods described (adding to the Startup folder, adding to regular Run key in registry) didn't work. Finally, this post on Stack Overflow solved the issue. This should work well on other versions of Windows too.

Because this is a 64-bit Windows, the change has to be made in Wow6432Node:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run

There, you can add a new string value, give it a name, and then double-click to edit it. Place the full path of the program in double quotes. If it's something requiring administrator privileges, on startup, Windows will display the UAC dialog.

Memory issues with IISExpress process on Visual Studio 2015

Visual Studio 2015 comes with IIS Express, which enables the localhost to serve as a web server without having to set up the app in Windows IIS. I was building a C#/MVC/Bootstrap site that kept crashing IIS Express. Some research revealed that we can run the server in 64-bit mode: Just go to Tools > Options > Projects and Solutions > check the box for "Use the 64 bit version of IIS Express for web sites and projects."

Memory usage by IIS Express went from over 700MB to 8MB now. Much better.