Guest andyjgw Posted October 3, 2007 Posted October 3, 2007 Hi Here's what I'm trying to do: Create a scheduled task that will be installed via group policy as a computer startup script, that will run at a certain time a day and interact with the currently logged on user. The task creation and such works fine, but I'm stuck in that the task runs with local SYSTEM privileges and thus the user never sees the interface (actually, an HTA html application pop up). I've tried messing around with /U and /RU switches with "schtasks / create" to no avail. If I specify the user, then it prompts for that user's password - and the problem with that anyway is that if User A puts in their password, but User B happens to be the one logged on when the task runs, then they won't get anything. IIRC, the old "AT" command had a "/interactive" switch, which would work great. But that doesn't seem to be in the schtasks on my machine. Is there not some option to create the task as system and have it interact with whoever is logged on? It doesn't need to impersonate them or anything (and I would prefer it didn't - as the outcome is that if the user doesn't respond to the interactive prompt, then the SYSTEM account will shut the machine down for them). Clients are Windows XP, mostly SP2, if that helps. We have most MS tools available here as MSDN subscribers in case a simple .cmd/.vbs etc won't do. Thanks for any help, it would be much appreciated. AW
Guest Pegasus \(MVP\) Posted October 3, 2007 Posted October 3, 2007 Re: Scheduled task, ran interactively ? "andyjgw" <andyjgw@gmail.com> wrote in message news:1191422640.473568.57130@g4g2000hsf.googlegroups.com... > Hi > > Here's what I'm trying to do: > > Create a scheduled task that will be installed via group policy as a > computer startup script, that will run at a certain time a day and > interact with the currently logged on user. > > The task creation and such works fine, but I'm stuck in that the task > runs with local SYSTEM privileges and thus the user never sees the > interface (actually, an HTA html application pop up). > > I've tried messing around with /U and /RU switches with "schtasks / > create" to no avail. If I specify the user, then it prompts for that > user's password - and the problem with that anyway is that if User A > puts in their password, but User B happens to be the one logged on > when the task runs, then they won't get anything. > > IIRC, the old "AT" command had a "/interactive" switch, which would > work great. But that doesn't seem to be in the schtasks on my machine. > Is there not some option to create the task as system and have it > interact with whoever is logged on? It doesn't need to impersonate > them or anything (and I would prefer it didn't - as the outcome is > that if the user doesn't respond to the interactive prompt, then the > SYSTEM account will shut the machine down for them). > > Clients are Windows XP, mostly SP2, if that helps. We have most MS > tools available here as MSDN subscribers in case a simple .cmd/.vbs > etc won't do. > > Thanks for any help, it would be much appreciated. > > AW > The command at 23:00 /interactive c:\tools\UserPrompt.bat works quite nicely on my WinXP PC. On a related subject: I suspect that your popularity rating will take a dip after the first few users have lost their files because you shut down their machines while they were away from their desks, perhaps while working late and stepping out for a quick meal.
Guest andyjgw Posted October 4, 2007 Posted October 4, 2007 Re: Scheduled task, ran interactively ? Thanks Pegasus I twigged the same answer just after I posted. I had thought that AT was originally from the NT4 resource kit, and didn't realise it had survived through on to XP. Surprised to see it in Vista as well, I thought schtasks had replaced all that. The one PC I tried to see if AT was still there didn't have it, but it has been well mucked about with so I guess that's no surprise. (Though a shame schtasks had removed the functionality- why ??) Re the unexpected shutdowns, that's what the user interface is for - we are developing a system that will shut down the clients PCs (at the clients request) around 7pm each night. However, the user interface will give them a 15-minute warning, offering to cancel, shutdown immediately, or launch a request (via webpage) do set up a permanent postpone for such operations (ie, don't shut down tonight, don't shutdown till next Monday, don't shutdown until <date>, or "never shutdown this machine"). Of course, clients will be well notified that this is the system. For what that's worth... It's interactive and users have control over their machines, but this is just to nudge people along. We are up over 4000 machines, and at that scale, there are potentially some savings to be made. We're also producing reports by AD OU on sites, shutdowns forced, shutdowns delayed etc so the client can see what the rewards are. But yes, you're right - even though this is at client's request, we do expect to take some heat for it initially.... But that's what IS Client services are for :) Here's hoping the Word/Excel etc auto-saves are all they're cracked up to be :P Thanks again AW On 3 Oct, 21:09, "Pegasus \(MVP\)" <I....@fly.com> wrote: > "andyjgw" <andy...@gmail.com> wrote in message > > news:1191422640.473568.57130@g4g2000hsf.googlegroups.com... > > > > > Hi > > > Here's what I'm trying to do: > > > Create a scheduled task that will be installed via group policy as a > > computer startup script, that will run at a certain time a day and > > interact with the currently logged on user. > > > The task creation and such works fine, but I'm stuck in that the task > > runs with local SYSTEM privileges and thus the user never sees the > > interface (actually, an HTA html application pop up). > > > I've tried messing around with /U and /RU switches with "schtasks / > > create" to no avail. If I specify the user, then it prompts for that > > user's password - and the problem with that anyway is that if User A > > puts in their password, but User B happens to be the one logged on > > when the task runs, then they won't get anything. > > > IIRC, the old "AT" command had a "/interactive" switch, which would > > work great. But that doesn't seem to be in the schtasks on my machine. > > Is there not some option to create the task as system and have it > > interact with whoever is logged on? It doesn't need to impersonate > > them or anything (and I would prefer it didn't - as the outcome is > > that if the user doesn't respond to the interactive prompt, then the > > SYSTEM account will shut the machine down for them). > > > Clients are Windows XP, mostly SP2, if that helps. We have most MS > > tools available here as MSDN subscribers in case a simple .cmd/.vbs > > etc won't do. > > > Thanks for any help, it would be much appreciated. > > > AW > > The command > > at 23:00 /interactive c:\tools\UserPrompt.bat > > works quite nicely on my WinXP PC. > > On a related subject: I suspect that your popularity rating will > take a dip after the first few users have lost their files because > you shut down their machines while they were away from their > desks, perhaps while working late and stepping out for a > quick meal.
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