I am running a Windows 7 installation, and I want to be able to run an application when there is no user logged in. The reason for this is that my application is a monitoring tool, and we want to be able to monitor 24/7 even if the computer reboots. From what I've gathered on the net, there are two ways of doing this:
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Create a service and run it under an Administrator account
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Use windows group policies to set up a logon script:
This is where things get a bit unclear, as people seem to confuse running a program in the background without a user logged in with running a program just after user has logged in. If I setup my program to run in this mode, will it run if no one logs in?
Can you comment on either #1, #2, which one you would recommend and why? Maybe there is another way I do not know about?
Thank you for the help,
Best Answer
You can run a program when no one is logged in, by using the Windows Task Scheduler. However, if your application needs to interact with a user, it may not work exactly how you'd like.
Check out the On Startup Trigger for more info (might be under Advanced config of a new task).
More information here: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc748841.aspx