"Start bitcoin on system login" removes additional flags in shortcut. #2197

I have my data directory on a different drive so I changed all my shortcuts to include "-datadir=D:\BitCoinData" but the shortcut in "%AppData%\Microsoft\Windows\Startup" changes back to the default the next time bitcoin starts up. I do have the "start bitcoin on system login" box checked. I change it to "bitcoin-qt.exe -min -datadir=D:\BitCoinData" but the next time the program boots the shortcut is reverted back to "bitcoin-qt.exe -min". Can you please fix this or provide the best way to have it startup with that data directory?

Or maybe on next client add an option in settings that allows the data directory to be specified?

It would probably be best to add the data directory to the shortcut automatically, to make sure that the bitcoin that automatically starts is the same as the one configured to automatically start.

Then again, this sounds like a very rare scenario, and I recommend simply disabling the option if you manually configured it in the registry.

I have the same problem on Windows 2003 using v0.8. It appears that the shortcut in "%USERPROFILE%\Start Menu\Programs\Startup" is being removed and recreated each time that Bitcoin starts up. This effectively removes all existing command line parameters in the Target field of the shortcut and reverts the shortcut back to the default. I tried setting the shortcut to read-only, hoping that the process of reverting it would then fail gracefully, but this causes a fatal error in the client when it is unable to remove the existing shortcut.

Workaround: Use a config file.

Can some dev tag this low-prio bug please.

bitcoin.conf is expected to be found in the data directory, so you can't specify the location of the data directory using the config file.

AFAIK we really re-create the .lnk file on every startup, which prevents users from modifying the files properties... Perhaps we should just stop to Regenerate startup link, to fix links to old versions, which seems silly IMHO.

In master, the data directory can be configured on first startup (or when it's missing, or when bitcoin-qt.exe is started with -choosedatadir). This is stored in the registry. So there is no reason anymore to provide it in the startup .lnk command line. All other options can be set in the bitcoin.conf.

@laanwj I still think we should NOT re-create that file on every client startup, do you agree?

This issue can be closed as it has been fixed.