Comments on: Windows Task Automator Anyone?

By: Hobbes

Hobbes — Mon, 14 Jun 2010 08:34:45 +0000

Have you tried Action(s)? (http://app.jbbres.com). It’s pretty much like Automator and it’s free. I think it’s working on Mac and PC too.

By: Henrik Pejer

Henrik Pejer — Tue, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

I do not know any of the progs you use but I've seen a 'power toy' from Microsoft that might be what you are looking for. here: http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/downloads/powertoys/xppowertoys.mspx You should look for 'Webcam Timershot'. The page says: "This PowerToy lets you take pictures at specified time intervals from a Webcam connected to your computer and save them to a location that you designate." I havenÂ´t used it but it could be interesting. If FTP is not available within the program, I think that if you add a FTP-site to the network places in windows that might solve that problem. Good luck!

By: anonymous

anonymous — Tue, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

AUTOMATOR CLONES ON WINDOWS: 1. http://www.automise.com/automise.aspx (Automise) (Not 2 b confused with Automize) 2. http://www.scriptahead.com (ScriptAhead)

By: Brian

Brian — Tue, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

On Windows I recommend VisualCron for stability and precision. It also has a fair price of $37.

By: Nnyan

Nnyan — Tue, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

Getting in here a little late but I would recommend (AutoIT is also very nice) the following: http://www.veloci.dk/ If you want a totally free option use PsService (http://www.sysinternals.com/Utilities/PsService.html) and a windows cron, which there are many options out there a few are: http://www.kalab.com/freeware/pycron/pycron.htm http://cronw.sourceforge.net/ http://www.nncron.ru/ (look for lite version) alternatively there are free macro makers: http://members.ij.net/anthonymathews/MacroMaker.htm

By: Chris Heelas

Chris Heelas — Tue, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

Hi,

I’ve written / writing plugins for a Windows version of Apples automator. I’m having problems thinking of useful plugins to write for it though, any suggestions?

What I’d really like is help writing plugins for it!

Send me an email if you’re interested in a copy of it.

By: Mike D.

Mike D. — Tue, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

Thomas: I had the same problem with the unplugging of the USB cable being the only way to “reset” the capture software, but it mysteriously went away when I started using Automate to kill the Remote Capture task and then relaunch it. All is fine now, but yeah, the thing still requires a killing/relaunching every couple of days.

By: Thomas Ch.

Thomas Ch. — Tue, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

Dear Mike, high folks,

i am a trainee in a it-company and i have problems with the remote capture task as well.

I am Using an IXUS 430 and CanonÂ´s Remote Capture Task.

My Problem:

I am using the intervall-function and the best resolution of pics.
The Task hast to take a picture every minute an put it directly on the hard disk.
I define the job and remote capture task returns me a value of about 5800 possible pics in this resolution…

But after about 3200 pics the task dos not copy the pics to the specified folder..it just start to count the failures..

I have tried to solve this problem in defining a task by a mouse recorder software, which ends the application each night and then opens it again.
Simultainlessly i have written a small batch file including robocopy, which cuts all pics older then 24 hours out of the “capturing” folder…

But this does not work.

The only way to continue capturing is to unplugg the usb.cable of the camera out of the port at my pc…

My OS is Windows 2000

Perhaps you have an inspiration or an idea…

Do not mind my bad english…i come from germany.. :-)

sincerely Thomas

By: onyx

onyx — Tue, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

As another poster commented, you can use Windows Script Host. It will cost you nothing since it already comes with the OS, and a script can monitor the event logs for the Canon crash and then restart the application programatically. Just because it’s Windows doesn’t mean everything has to be done in the GUI.

By: Adam M.

Adam M. — Tue, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

After watching demos of Apple's forthcoming Automator, I've been curious about this kind of utility for Windows. Your post got me Googling around, and I turned up xStarter. It's not as elegant as Automator appears to be, but it looks like it would suit your needs. According to this screenshot, it can fire off a recorded action upon detection of a Windows system event (such as your application crash). At $39.50, it's also much more reasonably priced than what you've been working with.

By: Adam M.

Adam M. — Tue, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

I was going to recommend the same XP PowerToy as Henrik. In my experience the PowerToys, though unsupported and thoroughly disavowed by MS, are stable and useful for each of their specified tasks.

Any luck with this problem so far?

By: Bradley

Bradley — Tue, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

If you're running XP Professional (not sure about Home) and can access the system management console, go into the services panel and check out the properties of any service. You can set a specific action for a service if it fails, such as reloading it. Here's a snapshot (Win2000, XP is similar). If my firewall crashes, it should restart itself. If it crashes three times, the system will reboot. Did Microsoft do something right here? So a solution would be to get your software to register itself as a service. I'm sure there is a program out there to help you with this, but not sure where to start. You would think that someone has written a freeware program to register a DLL as a service. Also, go to http://www.securitysoftware.cc/ and look for a program called "Sustain". The bad news: it's command-line. The good news: it periodically checks to see if your program is running, and if not it launches it. Supposed to be somewhat configurable. Never used it, but it's a shot. Look around, there has to be more software like this that I haven't found, yet. Good luck!

By: T_renamer

T_renamer — Tue, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

You should pay the interns. They might be more motivated if they made a buck or two.

That said, an automator I’ve used for years is “Quickeys”. Works best on Mac OS 9 (because it’s completely integrated with the OS and all applications), but it’s acceptable on Windows. Also available for OS X.

http://www.cesoft.com/

Your website is pretty nice. The comments preview is awesome. The comment numbering is also very cool – I assume you use the SIFR fonts for that.

(Editor’s Note: Thanks, but nope… the comment numbering is just pure CSS.)

By: Josh Santangelo

Josh Santangelo — Tue, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

You could just reboot every day, whether you need to or not. I'm currently using this for a couple of kiosks, just in case some user breaks them somehow.

By: andrew

andrew — Tue, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

Perhaps your solution could lie in cygwin? I do several tasks using crontabs, which are executed by cron.exe and automated through cygrunsrv (cygwin's service). You don't even have to be logged in for cron.exe to be executed. Now, I'm not sure as to your specific needs (I'm mainly using it to execute curl commands) but perhaps there is a clever way of doing what you need by implementing something similar to this. I think also there are other applications for similar use - that may have more of a direct application interaction and user-friendly GUI (although I've never used them). A Google search reveals a few freeware utilities, but I'm not sure as to their usefulness.