Autostarting Windows apps in KDE on Linux

If you have an application that runs under Wine in your Linux setup, and want it to start when you log in, then this post is for you!

At work we use Nagios system monitoring software, and I've only found a single, outdated Linux application, but I cannot find binaries for it on a modern system, and I couldn't get it to build (with my limited knowledge). A small Windows system tray application named 'NTrayC.exe' works fine to monitor the Nagios monitoring software, and it works just fine under Linux using Wine.

When I log into my work desktop in the morning, I want to know if our network is up, if a server is failing, or whatever may be the issue du jour. I could start that NTrayC.exe program manually every day, but I figured out a better way :)

In your /home/user/.kde/Autostart/ folder (it's a hidden folder -- see that . in front of kde?) you can just copy a standard Linux launcher there and it will start when KDE starts. This application, requiring Wine to run, needs a bit more massaging -- we need to start Wine, with this application as its option (note the full path to both Wine and to the application that Wine runs).

Create a file in that Autostart/ directory named 'windowsapp.desktop' and put this information in that file:

[Desktop Entry]
Encoding=UTF-8
Name=NTrayC.exe
Exec=/usr/bin/wine /home/lefty/NTrayC/NTrayC.exe
Icon=
Type=Application
StartupNotify=false

Now save the file, log out of KDE and back in, and it should start up on its own just fine!