I have WinCC v. 7.5.0.0 running on Windows Server 2012.  I have read through the following:

How do you set up Autostart for WinCC?

How do you avoid synchronization problems with the Autostart of WinCC Runtime V7?

lunch the wincc RT without using the "autostart" option

I don't have a "CCStartStop.exe" executable (apparently that comes with SP2).  There is no AutoStartWinCCRT value in the Registry, but there is an AutoStartWinCC key with multiple values (Activate, ProjectName, StartInServiceMode, etc.).  Regardless, I used the cited materials to put together a batch file with the AutoStartRT.exe command (see below).  As described, I set the AutoStart configuration to to have "Autostart active" deselected and "Activate project at startup" is selected.  The project is in service mode under a local user account.  Task Scheduler was set up to run the batch file on computer startup after a delay.  Batch command:

AutoStartRT.exe C:\HMI_DX\DX.mcp /Activ:yes /LANG=ENU /EnableBreak:no

When I start the computer, I can see that the Task Scheduler ran the batch file and that AutoStartRT.exe was running.  However, the WinCC project did not start (no windows, no error dialogs, no change to the sharkfin in the Windows tray) after running for 30 minutes.  I killed the AutoStartRT.exe process.  Then I ran the same command from the command prompt.  That resulted in an error message of "AutoStart is not possible".

If I just set the AutoStart configuration with "Autostart active" selected (no Task Scheduler or batch file), the project starts fine when the computer starts.

Any suggestions on what else I might need to do to successfully start the WinCC project from a batch file/command prompt?

-Chris

Thanks Fess.  I have tried it both ways, with the full path "C:\Program Files (x86)\Siemens\WinCC\bin\Autostart.exe" and without.  The path to that bin directory is in my PATH environment variable, so it shouldn't matter.  But I tried both and neither way would work for me.  I just received the "AutoStart is not possible" error message.

-Chris