How it works
- Choose the app in the picker, which lists Start menu apps, Store apps, running apps and your games, or type an exe or a shortcut.
- Decide what happens if it is already open: bring it to the front, leave it alone, start another copy, or restart it.
- You can wait for its process or its window before the next step runs, and the window it opened is handed to later steps such as Move and resize.
- Games start through their own launcher, and KeyRoutines waits for the real game process rather than the launcher's, so later steps act on the game itself.
- Advanced settings let you pass command-line arguments, set the folder it starts in, and ask for a minimized or maximized window in apps that respect it.
Routines that use it
Work setup in one press
A hotkey opens VS Code with your project folder as an argument, then Open URLs loads your dashboards and Apply layout puts each window on its monitor.
Game night
Open app starts your game through Steam, Game is ready waits until it has really loaded, and Set default audio device switches to your headset.
Start a tool when you plug in
When Display changed reports your external monitor, Open app starts your chat app and Move and resize sends it to that screen.
Settings
| Setting | What it does |
|---|---|
| App | The app or game to open. |
| If running | What to do when it's already running. |
| Wait for | What to wait for before the next step. |
| Argumentsadvanced | Command-line arguments, one per item (a path with spaces is one item). |
| Working directoryadvanced | The folder the app starts in. |
| Start stateadvanced | How its window starts (apps that respect it). |
Good to know
- Focusing an app that is already open is best effort: Windows sometimes refuses to change the window in front, which is logged rather than treated as a failure.
- A game whose launcher gives no way to start it can't be opened this way.
Questions
- How do I open several programs at once on Windows 11?
- Add one Open app step per program to a routine and start it with a hotkey or at sign-in. Set each step to wait for its window if the next step needs it.
- Can KeyRoutines launch Steam or Battle.net games?
- Yes. Pick the game from your library and it starts through its own launcher, then KeyRoutines finds the real game process for the steps that follow.
- Can I open an app with command-line arguments?
- Yes, in the step's advanced settings. Each argument is its own item, so a path with spaces stays one argument without extra quoting.