diff -up a/dwm.1 b/dwm.1
--- a/dwm.1	2020-12-01 10:01:44.217062949 +0100
+++ b/dwm.1	2020-12-01 10:04:30.247194027 +0100
@@ -30,6 +30,14 @@ top left corner.  The tags which are app
 indicated with an empty square in the top left corner.
 .P
 dwm draws a small border around windows to indicate the focus state.
+.P
+On start, dwm can start additional programs that may be specified in two special
+shell scripts (see the FILES section below), autostart_blocking.sh and
+autostart.sh.  The former is executed first and dwm will wait for its
+termination before starting.  The latter is executed in the background before
+dwm enters its handler loop.
+.P
+Either of these files may be omitted.
 .SH OPTIONS
 .TP
 .B \-v
@@ -152,6 +160,21 @@ Toggles focused window between floating
 .TP
 .B Mod1\-Button3
 Resize focused window while dragging. Tiled windows will be toggled to the floating state.
+.SH FILES
+The files containing programs to be started along with dwm are searched for in
+the following directories:
+.IP "1. $XDG_DATA_HOME/dwm"
+.IP "2. $HOME/.local/share/dwm"
+.IP "3. $HOME/.dwm"
+.P
+The first existing directory is scanned for any of the autostart files below.
+.TP 15
+autostart.sh
+This file is started as a shell background process before dwm enters its handler
+loop.
+.TP 15
+autostart_blocking.sh
+This file is started before any autostart.sh; dwm waits for its termination.
 .SH CUSTOMIZATION
 dwm is customized by creating a custom config.h and (re)compiling the source
 code. This keeps it fast, secure and simple.
diff -up a/dwm.c b/dwm.c
--- a/dwm.c	2020-12-01 10:01:44.217062949 +0100
+++ b/dwm.c	2020-12-01 10:07:15.937309505 +0100
@@ -29,6 +29,7 @@
 #include <string.h>
 #include <unistd.h>
 #include <sys/types.h>
+#include <sys/stat.h>
 #include <sys/wait.h>
 #include <X11/cursorfont.h>
 #include <X11/keysym.h>
@@ -222,6 +223,7 @@ static void resizemouse(const Arg *arg);
 static void resizerequest(XEvent *e);
 static void restack(Monitor *m);
 static void run(void);
+static void runautostart(void);
 static void scan(void);
 static int sendevent(Window w, Atom proto, int m, long d0, long d1, long d2, long d3, long d4);
 static void sendmon(Client *c, Monitor *m);
@@ -269,8 +271,12 @@ static int xerrorstart(Display *dpy, XEr
 static void zoom(const Arg *arg);
 
 /* variables */
+static const char autostartblocksh[] = "autostart_blocking.sh";
+static const char autostartsh[] = "autostart.sh";
 static Systray *systray =  NULL;
 static const char broken[] = "broken";
+static const char dwmdir[] = "dwm";
+static const char localshare[] = ".local/share";
 static char stext[256];
 static int screen;
 static int sw, sh;           /* X display screen geometry width, height */
@@ -1557,6 +1563,83 @@ run(void)
 }
 
 void
+runautostart(void)
+{
+	char *pathpfx;
+	char *path;
+	char *xdgdatahome;
+	char *home;
+	struct stat sb;
+
+	if ((home = getenv("HOME")) == NULL)
+		/* this is almost impossible */
+		return;
+
+	/* if $XDG_DATA_HOME is set and not empty, use $XDG_DATA_HOME/dwm,
+	 * otherwise use ~/.local/share/dwm as autostart script directory
+	 */
+	xdgdatahome = getenv("XDG_DATA_HOME");
+	if (xdgdatahome != NULL && *xdgdatahome != '\0') {
+		/* space for path segments, separators and nul */
+		pathpfx = ecalloc(1, strlen(xdgdatahome) + strlen(dwmdir) + 2);
+
+		if (sprintf(pathpfx, "%s/%s", xdgdatahome, dwmdir) <= 0) {
+			free(pathpfx);
+			return;
+		}
+	} else {
+		/* space for path segments, separators and nul */
+		pathpfx = ecalloc(1, strlen(home) + strlen(localshare)
+		                     + strlen(dwmdir) + 3);
+
+		if (sprintf(pathpfx, "%s/%s/%s", home, localshare, dwmdir) < 0) {
+			free(pathpfx);
+			return;
+		}
+	}
+
+	/* check if the autostart script directory exists */
+	if (! (stat(pathpfx, &sb) == 0 && S_ISDIR(sb.st_mode))) {
+		/* the XDG conformant path does not exist or is no directory
+		 * so we try ~/.dwm instead
+		 */
+		char *pathpfx_new = realloc(pathpfx, strlen(home) + strlen(dwmdir) + 3);
+		if(pathpfx_new == NULL) {
+			free(pathpfx);
+			return;
+		}
+   pathpfx = pathpfx_new;
+
+		if (sprintf(pathpfx, "%s/.%s", home, dwmdir) <= 0) {
+			free(pathpfx);
+			return;
+		}
+	}
+
+	/* try the blocking script first */
+	path = ecalloc(1, strlen(pathpfx) + strlen(autostartblocksh) + 2);
+	if (sprintf(path, "%s/%s", pathpfx, autostartblocksh) <= 0) {
+		free(path);
+		free(pathpfx);
+	}
+
+	if (access(path, X_OK) == 0)
+		system(path);
+
+	/* now the non-blocking script */
+	if (sprintf(path, "%s/%s", pathpfx, autostartsh) <= 0) {
+		free(path);
+		free(pathpfx);
+	}
+
+	if (access(path, X_OK) == 0)
+		system(strcat(path, " &"));
+
+	free(pathpfx);
+	free(path);
+}
+
+void
 scan(void)
 {
 	unsigned int i, num;
@@ -2501,6 +2584,7 @@ main(int argc, char *argv[])
 		die("pledge");
 #endif /* __OpenBSD__ */
 	scan();
+	runautostart();
 	run();
 	cleanup();
 	XCloseDisplay(dpy);