I have a simple batch script that copies a file to the startup folder, but it appears that I can't use shell:Common Startup as a parameter to xcopy. I have tried this

xcopy hurrdurr.exe "shell:Common Startup"

and many other variations, and they don't work. As an aside, if this did work, "hurrdurr.exe" would run on every startup right, assuming I got clearance via uac to do the xcopy operation? The os in question is Windows XP and proceeding. I know that people recommend against putting executables directly into the startup folder, but I'm just curious why this doesn't work.

Thanks!

You cannot use shell: like that when you are not within the shell.

One way, common to Windows XP through Windows 8 is to get the location from the registry using a batch file.

@ECHO OFF & SETLOCAL ENABLEEXTENSIONS DISABLEDELAYEDEXPANSION
SET "SF_=SOFTWARE\MICROSOFT\WINDOWS\CURRENTVERSION\EXPLORER\USER SHELL FOLDERS"
FOR /F "TOKENS=*" %%# IN (
	'REG QUERY "HKLM\%SF_%" /V "COMMON STARTUP"^|FIND "REG_"') DO SET "FL_=%%~#"
CALL :SUB %FL_:*_SZ=%
GOTO :EOF
:SUB
COPY "YourFile.ext" "%*"