I have an old exe I wrote that I think would make a nice screen saver. The problem is it needs the enter key pressed to start it.
I wrote a simple batch file to accomplish this:
start cells.exe
timeout /t 1
nircmd sendkey enter press
this works great when I run it from windows explorer... but when I schedule it to run from the task scheduler on idle, the .exe runs, but the key stroke never makes it through. I have tried running the task at the highest privileges, but still the same behavior. The .exe runs but doesn't receive the key stroke. Any suggestions would be very much appreciated.
Because Task scheduler is awkward about running batch files you need to put in an intermediary vbs file and run that from Task scheduler instead.
{Assuming your batch file is called StartCells.bat}
Set WshShell = CreateObject("WScript.Shell")
WshShell.Run chr(34) & "[FullPath]\StartCells.bat" & Chr(34), 2
Set WshShell = Nothing
This runs your batch file in a minimised window that nevertheless keeps the focus so that the intended operation of the nircmd line is not disrupted.
Denis
I got it to work by editing the registry to point the the .exe I complied from the .bat for my screen saver. I still don't understand why it wont run from task scheduler, but I understand now the this is the wrong forum for the question. Thanks for looking.
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thank you so much for helping me Jean-François Fabre, haveing someone who was thinking along with me kept me motivated to keep figuring things out myself!
what i ended up doing is using a timer script, that first boots up the scanning script, after 900 seconds of pauze the timer proceeds to open a vbs script that closes cmd and opens the timer again to do another 15 minute loop.
how to close a batch file with another batch file
C:\pokemongo-api-demo-maps>taskkill timedlocator
ERROR: Invalid argument/option - 'timedlocator'.
Type "TASKKILL /?" for usage.
currently using a runner script that boots up the batch file every 15 Sec (testing)
it wont close the batch script however
ive tried
taskkill/im cmd.exe
and
taskkill/im timedlocator.bat
the timedlocator gives the error, and the cmd closes the runner script aswell
that needs to reboot it, i cant seem to shutdown a specific cmd window without closing the other one, one solution ive tried is to make this timer shutdown script VBS and use this to shutdown CMD all together before rebooting it, but i dont know anything about what commands to use in VBS
original post
so basically i have a script that scans a area in pokemon go, unfortunately its about as unstable as it gets, so to fix this i need to reboot it about every 15 minutes, ive already tried a few things but got stuck in the end because im not very familiar with coding,
the original boot script script:
#echo off
set /p UserInputPath= Set Location-
C:\Python27\python main.py -u name -p pass -l "%UserInputPath%"
this calls the actual program that does all the work, after some research i found this How do I create a batch file timer to execute / call another batch throughout the day
and added this into the start of the script
start timer.bat
this opens a 2nd script to close and reboot after a timer
TIMEOUT /T 15 /NOBREAK
taskkill timedlocator
start timedlocator.bat
this leaves me with 2 problems i have not been able to figure out
how do i close the first batch without closing the timer CMD? ive tried messing around with taskkill and closing cmd alltogether, but this makes it impossible to boot it again
how do i automatically input a fixed streetname into the first file?
i have tried to replace the userinputpath with the streetname but that didnt seem to work.
setlocation-
at which point you enter a streetname, it sends this to the locator and it starts working,
what im trying to achieve is bypassing this first step and always send the same name.
any help with this would be much appreciated, ive been messing around w this for about 2 hours now and i have made some progress but ive seemed hit a dead end here with my limited computerskills
not sure of you're asking, but I'll try to answer anyway:
how do i close the first batch without closing the timer CMD? ive tried messing around with taskkill and closing cmd alltogether, but this makes it impossible to boot it again
You're taking it the wrong way round: create a script called runner.bat for instance and put this (untested)
:loop
start timerlocator.bat
timeout /T 900 /NOBREAK
taskkill /F /IM "python.exe"
goto loop
Your main script is started in background, and is killed and relaunched every 15 minutes (your 15 value is wrong timeout needs seconds).
how do i automatically input a fixed streetname into the first file? i have tried to replace the userinputpath with the streetname but that didnt seem to work.
=> remove the /P option and set the real value.
set /p UserInputPath=type_your_value_here
I want to create a batch file to do the following:
Start selenium server(webdriver-manager start)
Run Protractor tests(protractor conf.js)
Stop Selenium server()
This needs 2 different command prompts since webdriver-manager start will keep running and simultaneously the tests need to be executed
I have achieved the following so far. I have created a .bat file with the following contents:
start runTests.cmd
webdriver-manager start
Ctrl-C(**DOES NOT WORK**)
However, I am not able to figure out a way to shutdown the Selenium server(which is achieved by pressing Ctrl+C on the same window on which the webdriver-manager start command is executed)
You can generate keystrokes using VB Script, which can be called from a batch file.
I followed this post: http://www.w7forums.com/threads/f5-key-via-batch-file.18046/, substituting {F5} with ^{C} for Ctrl+C. So my file looks like:
Set objShell = CreateObject("WScript.Shell")
objShell.SendKeys "^{C}"
You need to save this file with a ".vbs" extension.
I also found from this answer VBScript - switching focus to window using AppActivate how to set the focus to another window (which you know the title of). Doing this first, you can direct your keystroke to the appropriate window, so:
Set objShell = CreateObject("WScript.Shell")
objShell.AppActivate "Untitled - Notepad"
objShell.SendKeys "^{C}"
I experimented with an empty instance of Notepad, so you'll need to change the window title string appropriately. (Ctrl+C doesn't do anything in Notepad, but Alt+F4 closes it, so I used "%{F4}" to test it.)
Then you can simply call the VBS file from your batch file to run it.
I have a simple batch file in windows that I run on startup that presents the user with a menu to start certain applications. However by default, whenever I open one of these applications the focus goes to that window and off of the batch file. Is there a way to maintain, or re-divert focus onto the batch window?
Thanks
EDIT: Got it to do what I wanted. Used foxidrives suggestion to start them minimized but they were still taking focus. So I made a short VBScript to make the cmd window the active window after each call and the combination of the two worked. Thanks!
There is no command to steal the focus. As Bill_Stewart posted, that would be a dangerous feature that grants the program too much power over the user. You can however start the applications minimized (they will still be the active window), and then build and call a VBScript to make your batch window the active window:
start "" /MIN "application.exe"
cscript /nologo myVBScript.vbs
myVBScript.vbs
Set WshShell = WScript.CreateObject("WScript.Shell")
WshShell.AppActivate "myBatchFile"
WScript.Sleep 2000
WshShell.AppActiavte "myBatchFile"
I've read that several people have had trouble with AppActivate on Windows 7. It was not functioning for me, and instead of bringing my target window to the foreground it just blinked in the task bar. Calling it a second time however, for some reason, brought it to the foreground and made it the active window, which is what I wanted. Hope this helps anybody else with a similar issue.
you can't lock the focus to your command prompt window. But what you could do is to set the TopMost flag of the command prompt window. There is a Win32 function called SetWindowPos which does that. Maybe there are some ready to use command line tools around which are doing this for you. Or, if you have visual studio installed, try to compile this one here: How to set a console application window to be the top most window (C#)?
If you use the start command with the /min switch then the application will be minimised and the batch file should remain visible:
#echo off
pause
echo launching notepad
start "" /min notepad
echo notepad is active
pause
This question already has answers here:
Force a "real" BSoD on windows 10, or corrupt its OS
(7 answers)
Closed 1 year ago.
Is there a way is batch or vbs to force the blue screen of death to appear, or a forced crash. This can happen from stopping the process "csrss.exe" but it wont close via simple batch or vbs script. How can this be done?
Try NotMyFault by Sysinternals.
If you run a .bat file with %0|%0 inside, your computer starts to use a lot of memory and after several minutes, is restarted.
%0 is the name of the currently executing batch file. A batch file that simply does:
%0|%0
Is going to recursively execute itself forever, quickly creating many processes and slowing the system down.
It's a logic bomb, it keeps recreating itself and takes up all your CPU resources. It overloads your computer with too many processes and it forces it to shut down. If you make a batch file with this in it and start it you can end it using taskmgr. You have to do this pretty quickly or your computer will be to slow to do anything.
This is known as a fork bomb.
It keeps splitting itself until there is no option but to restart the system.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fork_bomb
This is not a bug in windows, it is just a very stupid thing to do in a batch file. so if you want to test it, you must save your work before.
Not sure why you would want this, but...
#echo off
taskkill /f /im wininit.exe
pause
You might need to set this to run as an Administrator.
set ramconsumer = createobject("wscript.shell")
do
ramconsumer.run wscript.scriptname
loop
not shure why you need it but here it is a vbs version
This is sort of a follow-up to my question earlier (link).
To test things out I made this simple batch file to ensure the Task Scheduler was properly executing the batch file:
cd "C:\Users\user\Desktop"
echo. 2>test.txt
So after the test.txt document is created on the desktop, the batch file should end but it continues to run:
Is there a way, either at the end of the batch file or a setting in the Task's Properties, to ensure that the cmd process quits?
Thanks!
I ran into the exact same problem. However, I felt duped when I read what Trevor778 wrote in this post:
I had the same problem - the task worked but the status kept showing Running. One simple thing to try is click on the Task Scheduler Library in the left column. Click Action/Refresh. Presto. Status changed to Ready. That's all it was for me, the task ran fine, just the status didn't update. Hope this helps.
ref: https://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/2f6dc29c-3b8b-45f5-a2a7-53e076acc062/task-scheduler-scheduler-status-is-being-running-always?forum=winservergen
you can add "exit" to last line of your script
cd "C:\Users\user\Desktop"
echo. 2>test.txt
exit
Running TASKKILL /F /IM cmd.exe will kill all cmd.exe processes whether it was the one that spawned this batch file or not. That's probably not desirable behavior. :-)
Judging by your last question, I'm guessing you're still running your task with cmd.exe /k, which will keep that window open indefinitely. For an unattended task, cmd.exe /c is a better choice. When the batch file finishes, the process should end.
Same here on Windows 7.
Putting all batch files in a directory in the user User specific path who runs the task
run programm = " cmd.exe " (without a path)
Your extras, mine where = " /c "C:\Users[username]\whatever\your_batchfile.bat" >> log.txt" "
" >> log.txt " so that i can see the output of the batch...
start in = " C:\Users[username]\whatever "
I also checked the "run with highest privilges" box
after that everything worked fine :)
Use following
exit /B
you may find more information in windows console area then type:exit/?
I know it's an old question, but I personally found that if I let a pause at the end of the bat file, it would keep the status as "Running".
I usually leave a pause at the end to help with debugging, but I found when I removed it, the task scheduler finally recognised it as having exited. It didn't help if I just refreshed it.
The solution I found was to add this line at the very end of the batch file:
TASKKILL /F /IM cmd.exe
Now after the batch file task runs and completes, it is no longer in the All Running Tasks list and the status goes back to 'Ready' instead of staying at 'Running'.
Warning:
That command will kill all running command processor instances so it may be potentially harmful!