How to Start Thunderbird and Other Programs at Startup in Ubuntu 14.04

UPDATE 2023: A full nearly 10 years later I realized this blog post is still nearly good but a small change is required in the steps below as follows for ubuntu 22.04+ kind of range after step 2:

* after hitting the browse button in step 2 you need to hit ‘+ Other Locations’ at bottome of left pane, then

* click ‘Computer’ icon in the main pane

at the bottom of the left pane to expose the other steps.

Now you can continue from step 4 on my blog to victory…

This is a slight modification of my previous tutorial on the same topic for 13.10 since a couple of small things changed that mucked it up.  Hope this helps!

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I always open my email when I turn on my computer so I figured I could save a few steps and have it open automatically.  It’s easier than I thought and you could apply this to other programs/applications as well (like Firefox, etc).  It is reported this tutorial also works as far back as Ubuntu 12.04 as well.

So put on your seatbelt, kids! Here we go!

1. Press the Super Key and open your Dash and type ‘start’ and wait.  It should bring up the ‘Startup Applications’ thingy below.  Click it.

3.Click the word ‘computer’ in the left pane.  Then double click the ‘usr’ folder in the right pane.

*The rest of the following bits in the tutorial should be the same as 13.10 so I’ll keep the same images.  Don’t be confused if it looks slightly different.

4. Navigate down to find the ‘bin’ folder, open it

5. Navigate down (you might want to use your ‘page down’ button to speed this up) until you find ‘Thunderbird’ and click ‘open’ button

6. Fill in your favourite deets as I did in the most creative way below and click ‘add’:

7. In order for this to actually work you have to log out or restart your computer.  You can do that with the ‘log out’ option at the cogwheel on the top right side of your screen

You are done, son.  It’s that fun and easy.  Next time invite your friends and Gramma.

*Note: for some reason I had trouble finding Firefox but eventually it was there and I found it.

Now when you turn on your computer Thunderbird and whatever other program you want will be ready and waiting.