Windows 8 – Run Script on Startup

I'm not really familiar with Kali, but as I remember it does have systemd installed.

So, systemd is a good thing and I think it fits to your problem. Using it is easy and is a common thing used widely in practice.

Here you can read more about it. Basically you need to add a service config to your service scripts, which runs your script, and you're done. If you need an example, feel free to ask.

Workaround (?) with Task Scheduler

I worked out the way to get the script to run using Task Scheduler: the path to the .exe file (AutoHotkeyU64.exe) is now in the box "Program/script", and the path to the .ahk script in the "Add arguments" box. It didn't work with the path to the script in "Program/script".

NB, for the benefit of anyone experiencing this problem: I find that I have to set a "Delay task for" in Task Scheduler: without it the script fails to run. Although it looks like the shortest delay you can set is "30 seconds", actually you can then edit that "Delay task for" box manually: I have currently set it to "10 seconds", and the script runs OK.

This script is the only thing I execute on startup, but would still be interested to know why the other method is broken on my system.

Partial solution after reinstalling as admin

Finally, when I put it in the "shell:common startup" location... it ran! So it doesn't work for the individual user, only for all users. No idea why. As I said above, previously it wasn't running in either startup location. So it presumably must be due to re-installing AHK (as admin?).