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I have a scheduled task that runs an app; let's say notepad.exe. If the task "runs only when a user is logged in," I can see notepad, but if the task "runs whether user is logged in or not" notepad does not run in interactive mode. And even if I am logged in and run the task in this mode, I cannot see the notepad window or the process until I select "show all" in task manager. The problem is when notepad has an error, upon logging in, I cant see that error so there's no way of telling what the error is or what notepad was doing when it got the error. It looks like the task cant run in interactive mode since there is no logged in user at the time it starts. So my question is: is there a way to change notepad to interactive mode once a user does log in?

Looking at a programmatic solution, is there a way of using shell32 or user32 to change an application to interactive mode at run time?

Also, my issue is not with notepad obviously... just a proof of concept.

Gray
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DrPopTart
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1 Answers1

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I don't know a lot about Scheduled Tasks, but if they behave like a service, then you will have a hard time getting into these windows. In a service when you enable a service to interact with the Desktop, if you want to see the windows that the service opens, then you need to give him a user account, and you'll only be able to see the windows if you're logged in into that account, and only when a new window is opened; when a new window is opened you get a notification in the Desktop (if my memory serves me well is in the top of the Desktop) that you have to click in order to see the opened application.

If you can modify the application of the scheduled task, then I recommend you to make it non gui and to report errors to either the Event Viewer or a log file. If you can't modify the application of the scheduled task, then you may try wrapping it as a service, so you get the notifications when a new window is opened.

Rafael
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  • My tasks deal with automating user input on other applications so I need to see where automation stopped at as far as filling out a form let say, not just error modal windows. It becomes an issue when the PC (on a domain) gets push updates that reboot the machine. – DrPopTart Apr 12 '13 at 20:34