Problem Definition

Currently when the Companion App MSI file is deployed by admins wishing to roll out this feature to multiple Windows machines the app still needs to be manually started before it can make the system call to add it to launch at startup. Customers have run into this issue and see that only after running the app manually the registry entry is placed here: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run

This differs from the normal installer behaviour (.exe) which does launch the Companion App after installing. However, MSIs are usually installed via an admin account, so having the executable launch automatically after installation will not solve the problem (as this will only add the registry entry for the admin user). 

Current scenario:

After user runs the App for the first time, the registry key will be added in the following path

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run

Workaround:

The registry key can be added to HKCU (for all users that should have Companion running) during the deployment to ensure that the app is started automatically without having the user to start it manually.

For 32-bit OS:

msiexec /qn /i "Atlassian Companion.msi"
reg add "HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run" /v "electron.app.Atlassian Companion" /d "C:\Program Files\Atlassian Companion\Atlassian Companion.exe --was-opened-at-login" /f

For 64-bit OS:

msiexec /qn /i "Atlassian Companion.msi"
reg add "HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run" /v "electron.app.Atlassian Companion" /d "C:\Program Files (x86)\Atlassian Companion\Atlassian Companion.exe --was-opened-at-login" /f

As of Companion 0.6.0, a registry key can alternatively be manually added to HKLM (instead of HKCU) with no side effects. This will allow Companion to automatically launch for all users on the machine. The process will be the same as above, but adding the registry key to HKLM: 

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\WOW6432Node\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run