Making A Program Run On Startup?
 

No, I do not mean when a user's session is started. I realise ...

HKEY_LOCALMACHINE > SOFTWARE > MICROSOFT > Windows > CurrentVersion > Run

... will run it when a session is started. I need a program to automatically start before a user even has the chance to log on.

I tried googling some stuff already, but I had no clue what specific terms to use.

Under windows, the type of program you want to produce is described as a "windows service". The ways of developing such an application are a little challenging: your application needs to communicate with the SCM (Service Control Manager) both to install itself so it can be run independently of a user login, and so the SCM can control it (eg terminate it when windows shuts down).

SCM is often expressed verbally as "scum" which reflects the distaste a fair few developers have at the though of developing windows services. The API is not difficult, but it's not a thing of beauty either.