Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE: Windows XP Task Scheduler is Worthless to Me

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Posted by Greg Anderson (Member # 235) on 03-21-2008, 10:28 AM:

I work with both Mac OS-X and Windows XP. There's a nice little function in OS-X which allows you to schedule the computer to shut down and/or start up using a schedule. I tried to find a similar function in Windows XP. All I got was a tip about using "shutdown.exe" through the "Scheduled Tasks" utility in the Control Panel. It is worthless. I can't get the "Scheduled Tasks" to run anything (not just the shutdown function) without first locking up my system with passwords.

I'm the only person who uses my computer and it's physically secure. I have no need/interest in creating a log-in password or any other such paranoid, time-consuming, unnecessary key-stroking nonsense. But I can't seem to use the "Scheduled Tasks" at all without passwords. And that's rather odd to me... since I have more than one company's automatic update reminders running without my ever telling those utilities to place a password into the system.

So... are there any Windows wizards out there in Film-Tech-land who have had any success with and/or love for the Windows XP Scheduled Tasks utility? Or do I just wander back to the OS-X world and conclude, once and for all, that Windows is rubbish? Does the answer lie in Vista? No, wait. I already said I didn't (Are you sure?) want time-wasting (Are you sure?), unnecessary keystrokes (Are you sure?)... so forget Vista. (Are you sure?)

Posted by Joe Redifer (Member # 3) on 03-21-2008, 06:20 PM:

First of all, how DARE you insult Windows! It is magnificently programmed and thoroughly enjoyable. When you use Windows, you say "WOW!" Why would you ever think of using anything else? Also, SMART Sound Processors are the best.

Posted by Sean McKinnon (Member # 612) on 03-21-2008, 06:36 PM:

quote: Greg Anderson
Windows is rubbish

Posted by Randy Stankey (Member # 64) on 03-21-2008, 11:44 PM:

If the computer is physically secure, as you say it is, why shut it down at all?

Just set the hard drive to spin down and sleep the system after a reasonable period of non-use. (Say 30 minutes.) Then just turn the screen off and walk away.

The biggest consumers of power in a computer are peripherals, hard drives and displays. Your hard drive is spun down and your USB/peripheral chain shuts down when the system sleeps. With the display turned off, your computer uses a very small amount of power. The figure I remember is less than 5 watts.

In the offices where I work we have 10 PCs with varying versions of Windoze, 4 Macs and a Linux box. Four of the box office computers are shut down at night, ostensibly for security reasons. Most of the rest of the computers are left on for days at a time. The Macs are rebooted only for system updates. The Linux machine is virtually never shut down.

I took an old, broken down Dell PC and replaced the hard drive then installed Linux. That computer has been shut down, maybe two or three times since I installed it.

Uptimes on the Macs are probably on the order of several weeks. Uptime on the Linux computer is in the realm of months. The PCs get uptimes anywhere from 12 hours to several days.

None of them are any worse for the wear.

In my office, college policy requires that we set computers for log in access. Besides, they can't be physically secured like yours can. In your case, I don't see any reason to set your computers for log in unless you want to or unless you have multiple users.

My advice: Shut down your display(s) and peripherals. Leave the rest. It won't hurt anything.

BTW: When it comes to Vista... AVOID!

One website for I.T. professionals ran a poll. More than 60% of respondents said that they "Have no plans to upgrade to Vista." Less than 20% said that they would upgrade to Vista when SP1 was available and stabilized. Only about 20% said that they would upgrade at all.

Also, more than 70% of those polled said that their dominant operating system is Linux.

The only place where Windoze has a real majority is in the corporate/office markets where hundreds or thousands of computers must be installed universally and they all have to be exactly the same. If you are outside of that market it would be wise for you to have at least SOME of your computers running (or capable or running) alternate operating systems like Mac OS X or Linux.

If it was my druthers, I say you should have an almost even split between Macs and Linux with only enough Windoze machines to cover your bases when somebody throws a curve at you with some piece of proprietary software that only runs in Windows.

Posted by Chris Slycord (Member # 4239) on 03-22-2008, 01:40 AM:

Speaking of linux and shutdown/reboot:
I like the kexec feature available in recent kernels. It lets you "reboot linux" but with bypassing the bios. Essentially, the kernel can load and execute another kernel. So I just have a config file for kexec so that when it goes to restart it loads whatever kernel name I specified. Great for quickly restarting if you got a new kernel. Granted, it kills your "uptime"/e-penis but I couldn't care less about that. [Smile]

edit: And there's really no need to have a box dedicated for Windows anymore. virtualbox and vmware both run on linux and mac plus there's parallels that runs only on the mac so installing windows in a virtual machine is no problem. And if you want windows as a dual-boot only then obviously linux dual-boots quite easily and now macs can do it too (through bootcamp).

Posted by Mark Gulbrandsen (Member # 72) on 03-22-2008, 07:07 AM:

Doesn't MAC also have an OS something or other that will also run on a PC? Oh... some of the programs you use probably DON'T run under MAC OS do they? I more or less do agree with Randy though... No need to shut down your puter unless you can't make it secure for some odd reason or other. Also get yourself a flat panel moonitor... prices are so cheap on them these days and they all have that auto sleep "Green Feature". My computer running XP-Pro has literally been turned on going just overr the 3 years mark! BTW: no firewall or anti-virus. I just run adaware every few days.

I recently set up a Dell 2450 server running "Windows Home Server" on it... although there are still a few bugs in WHS its really a pretty nifty program overall... Its based on a cut down version of Windows Server 2003 running an intergral home server program on top. The auto-backup feature is the coolest part of it... you schedule backups of all your computers as often as you want(mine are done daily) and if you loose one of your computers on the network you just run the restore computer CD in what ever machine went flakey on you and its back where it was at yesterdays backup in just a few min. time. The only thing its lacking is RAID 5 ability but then the drive array or pool system it does use is also as unique and if you do loose a drive you don't loose data. The biggest bug with WHS right now is that if you edit stuff at the server it can corrupt that data... sure the Gates folks are working on the fix but then again WHS was and is not meant to be used "at the server"... its intention once setup was to only use it from the workstations and from there its been amazingly stable.

Oh and Joe... Smart still does indeed produce the finest analog processor ever made... The Panastereo CSP-1200 [Big Grin]

!!!

Mark

Posted by Sean McKinnon (Member # 612) on 03-22-2008, 09:51 AM:

quote: Greg Anderson
Windows is rubbish

Posted by Chris Slycord (Member # 4239) on 03-22-2008, 11:20 AM:

quote: Mark Gulbrandsen
Doesn't MAC also have an OS something or other that will also run on a PC?

No.

Technically speaking, there's no reason Mac OS X shouldn't be able to run on a PC (since Macs are intel-based now) and there is a project where people hacked the release to be able to run on a generic recent PC but the EULA for Apple's OSs only allows for it to be run on Apple hardware. In short: It's possible to get Macintosh OS running on a PC natively but doing so is illegal (and the hacked installation CD is only available via bittorent and such). Personally, I think it's pretty stupid that I can't legally buy the OS and put it on any computer I want.

Though it was funny hearing a recording of a guy calling Apple support and them confused when he said he was running X on a Compaq Presario.

Posted by Greg Anderson (Member # 235) on 03-22-2008, 11:43 AM:

I've long been aware of the concept of leaving a computer running all the time. But I don't have UPS units on all of my home computers and I'd rather turn them off than have them running during, say, thunderstorms or other potential power bumps. Also I have a 7-year-old Mac at home that's still running strong but I hate to leave it on all the time because there's just enough fan noise to bug me on an especially quiet night. (The Intel Macs at work are amazingly quiet!)

And what about laptop computers? I've always felt that the hibernation function makes the system somewhat buggy when they wake up. So I always like a clean reboot when I get to my destination. I've also noticed that sometimes when a computer gets buggy, a full shut-down is much better than a restart (and I've even had this experience with Macs!).

But, besides the idea of a scheduled shut-down, I can see reasons I'd like to use the "Scheduled Tasks" function in XP... if it actually worked. Can anyone tell me that they've used it successfully?

Posted by Mark Gulbrandsen (Member # 72) on 03-22-2008, 12:48 PM:

quote:
I've also noticed that sometimes when a computer gets buggy, a full shut-down is much better than a restart (and I've even had this experience with Macs!).

Thats because XP may be running chkdsk automatically when you boot up the computer. That would tend to clean up minor do-do's on the drive but not anything major. I have UPS's on all my home computers, a large one on the server so it does't take any power bumps when a backup is happenning... it even has dual redundant load sharing power supplies!! Small UPS's can be had for 60 bucks or less today and they more or less make a computer immune to power bumps and surges. I do reccomend one of the larger ones though on important machines... say that would run just the computer for an hour... Its worth it and many come with a replace your computer guarantee if its damaged when plugged into the UPS.

Anyway it sounds to me like someone messed with your XP settings and stuff or you may have taken alot of unknowing power bumps... Have you run a chkdsk/f? That can be done from the command prompt and then at the next re-boot it'll run and repair disk errors you may have. If the problems persist try a repair install or using the repair console function to put it back to your prefrences. If you have never used the repair console just do a google on it to learn about its functions... which are all done through command prompt.

BTW: What are you using Task Scheduler for? I don't know anyone that actually does use it...

Mark

Posted by Bobby Henderson (Member # 840) on 03-22-2008, 12:59 PM:

quote: Chris Slycord
Technically speaking, there's no reason Mac OS X shouldn't be able to run on a PC (since Macs are intel-based now) and there is a project where people hacked the release to be able to run on a generic recent PC but the EULA for Apple's OSs only allows for it to be run on Apple hardware.

The main stumbling block of installing OSX on hardware not branded by Apple is the BIOS chip. All Windows PCs have the old BIOS chip. Macs have that new EFI Boot strap thingie.

It's easy to natively dual boot Windows XP and OSX on a Mac. You just can't do it so easily on a regular PC.

Posted by Chris Slycord (Member # 4239) on 03-22-2008, 02:32 PM:

And they apparently hacked a way to get around that quite some time ago.

Posted by Greg Anderson (Member # 235) on 03-22-2008, 02:41 PM:

quote: Mark Gulbrandsen
BTW: What are you using Task Scheduler for? I don't know anyone that actually does use it...

Oh, it's just one of my quirks. I love automatic timers. Lights, outdoor sprinklers, bread-making machines, bathroom fans, whatever... they're all more fun when they're run by timers. Even when I'm at home I love to sit around and watch my gadgets run themselves.

Posted by Bobby Henderson (Member # 840) on 03-22-2008, 04:30 PM:

Sometimes the capability isn't worth the price increase. Sony has another version of the HDTV I purchased that features a RS-232 serial input for home automation capabilities. That, and a glossy bezel around the screen adds over $800 to the price of the TV.

Posted by Joe Redifer (Member # 3) on 03-22-2008, 05:39 PM:

quote: Mark Gulbrandsen
Doesn't MAC also have an OS something or other that will also run on a PC? Oh... some of the programs you use probably DON'T run under MAC OS do they?

I wasn't aware that a MAC could have an OS or be an OS in and of itself.

Posted by Michael Brown (Member # 890) on 03-22-2008, 07:17 PM:

For shut downs I use a free program called Shutter ( Download here. Simply select a time or countdown time and it'll shut down (or do other stuff). I use it quite a bit.