I'm currently using windows 7 with apache, php, and mysql. I understand on windows, task scheduler is the equivalence of cron jobs on linux/unix systems. I'm wondering what the easiest way to run a php file on my localhost server is through a task scheduler. I want it to open chrome (i know how to do that) but how do I set it to go to a certain page and close once it's finished the script.
A couple things come to mind...
One would be to utilize AutoIt which is a very powerful and public domain automation tool. You could easily start Chrome, navigate, verify on-screen values (e.g. when your script finishes), and then close chrome.
Another alternative would be to play bit more gorilla warfare tactic and terminate the process Chrome is using after some preset amount of time has elapsed (assuming you know how long this takes to run). See Windows' "TaskKill" command line options here: enter link description here
Related
I have an app that listens to certain process events, such as starting a program and than recording the full commands. I would like to replay starting the programs using the commands as well. For some programs e.g. word, this works very well.
For windows app programs, this does not work. For example, starting calculator:
Command inputs: "C:\Program Files\WindowsApps\Microsoft.WindowsCalculator_10.1709.2703.0_x64__8wekyb3d8bbwe\Calculator.exe"
Access is denied.
I could start the calculator using calc, but unfortunately, I don't have that information in my program. Is there any way to start such a program using the executable path?
I used admin mode for the latter command.
Have you tried running cmd as administrator?
Just kidding ;-)
Actually, starting Windows Store apps (or UWP apps, or whatever they are called these days) is not easy. Finding the correct command line for them is a very long-winded process. It's described here:
https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/windows_10-windows_store/starting-windows-10-store-app-from-the-command/836354c5-b5af-4d6c-b414-80e40ed14675?auth=1
I know it's bad form to just give links as answers, but on this occasion the answer itself would take pages to write. If the above link disappears, google "Starting Windows Store apps from the command line".
I think cmd running as a normal user it required administrator access, try cms as administrator.
I have a script that loads an excel file from some link, and then writes some information from the excel file to a text file. I set up a task on Task Scheduler to run the script and then email the text file, and it works fine while logged on. It does not, however, run while the computer is locked.
Unfortunately, I need the task to be run in the early morning before I get to work. Is there any way to make this work?
Unfortunately I don't think this is possible. This link HERE contains someone with a similar situation that was solved by making the computer "lock" via custom vbscript. However this is not the traditional "Lock" of a computer and actually just disables and removes a bunch of things... Further down they mention it being possible but it's very limited on what can happen... and making windows active is one of the limitations.
I'd like to write my own (very simple) explorer.exe alternative that I could actively switch between without having to restart my computer.
Is it possible to run two shells simultaneosly (or to write a program that temporarily disables the current shell)?
If not, is it possible to stop explorer without it restarting itself, and have my shell start itself instead?
Edit
More info: I'd like to write a simple productivity tool for myself. I want to set up a very simple task manager that prevents me from starting/opening/using anything but a whitelisted set of applications I list ahead of time. Locking me into that set of apps for whatever time period I've set. If there's another (better) way to prevent people from shutting down my app, switching from my app (with alt-tab, etc) I'm all ears.
Note: I'm fine with the app/shell/whatever being escapable by restarting my computer. I just want to make it massively inconvenient to switch to being distracted, and I wanted to learn a bit more about the Windows API.
See this question for details about writing a shell.
No, there can only be one real shell process (SetShellWindowEx only works when there is no other shell process) WH_SHELL can be used by other processes and it might be enough for your needs (Maybe in combination with IShellExecuteHook)
When explorer.exe is started and it detects a different shell it will not display the taskbar, just a file browser window. Explorer also looks at the shell value in the registry IIRC. You might also want to look into the shift to exit trick.
I decided to write a program in RUBY in which the following things should be done:
1 - this program must run a specific program (for example utorrent) at a specific time (for example 1 pm).
2 - this program must turn off my computer at another specific time.
I don't have any idea about the algorithm and manner of writing such program.
One of the easiest ways to do this is to simply send kill signals to the processes, requesting the app shut down normally (Linux), or in Windows use taskkill.
To shutdown a machine in Windows, you can use shutdown /s /f which forcibly closes any programs that are running, and turns the computer off.
No matter which way you do it, you'll basically be running the enter link description heresystem() command in Ruby, which runs command line commands. To make your app portable, you simply look up how to do these tasks in each target OS, and you're done.
Two more alternatives that work the same as your Ruby proposal, but which are not as easily portable:
Write a batch file in Windows that calls taskkill, or a bash script on Linux. Unless the program in question provides a specific way to shut it down via its own command-line parameters, this should work for any/all applications.
You can also use Task Scheduler in Windows, or cron in Linux to do the same thing.
I wrote a script in Ruby. I'd like to run it every day at a certain time. How do you do that on a Windows XP system?
I poked around on the machine and discovered the "scheduled tasks" control panel, but it doesn't seem to have anything to do with running scripts, as far as I can tell from the options offered by the "wizard".
Scheduled Tasks. Sometimes, you have to make a batch file call the script, and schedule the batch.
say you have "script.vbs" you want to run, you will have to create this batch:
cscript script.vbs
cscript is the windows script host which interprets the vbs script. I'm sure ruby has something similar.
You can do it with scheduled tasks, just browse for the program or script you want to run if it isn't listed (in this case, the ruby interpreter I guess, and add the name of the script to run as an argument).
Use the Windows task scheduler.
Under Control Panel > Schedule Tasks.
You can set it up to run any application or file executable from the command line.
Update: (1/15/09)
A good point from Wouter van Nifterick, remember to take care that the process finishes before the next one runs (in comments).
This can be done by going into the advanced options and adjust the allowed amount of time the task may run.
If the task is already configured open it and click the Settings tab. At the top of this tab you will see a checkbox followed by 'Stop the task if it runs for:' then there are two text boxes to enter hours and minutes. If your script runs once a day you will want this set to 23 hours or so.
The 'at' command is a nice command line version of a scheduler.