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Hi Folks,

While I am new to AutoIt, as well as to Windows programming, I do have a fairly solid understanding of programming structures (IF's, WHILE's, FOR's, etc.)

What I am trying to accomplish is the following:

Poll system time, and when it reaches 2:10 AM, launch a program.

Continue polling system time, and when it reaches 6:50 AM close the program that was launched at 2:10.

That's it. I tried to schedule it in Task Manager, and while it launched, there does not seem to be a way to shut the program down, other than the vague "If still running after" option. I also tried to search online for an automation program that would provide the option to launch and close other programs, and that is what lead me to AutoIt. That's fine. I have no problem learning how to do it myself. I just need some guidance with respect to which variables to use, and the syntax of the AutoIt commands. All help is appreciated.

Cheers.

~6DAVEROO9~

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Welcome to the forum. This should do the work:

While 1
If @Hour = 02 and @Min = 10 then
If ProcessExists("cmd.exe") then
_DoNothing()
else
Run("cmd.exe")
EndIf
EndIf
If @Hour = 06 and @Min = 50 then
ProcessClose("cmd.exe")
ExitLoop
EndIf
WEnd
Func _DoNothing()
EndFunc

Here CMD.exe is the name of my program.

Edited by MKISH

----------------------------------------

:bye: Hey there, was I helpful?

----------------------------------------

My Current OS: Win8 PRO (64-bit); Current AutoIt Version: v3.3.8.1

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Yup. Once you master this one, it helps you a lot even in other languages like C/C++ as well

----------------------------------------

:bye: Hey there, was I helpful?

----------------------------------------

My Current OS: Win8 PRO (64-bit); Current AutoIt Version: v3.3.8.1

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Welcome to the forum. This should do the work:

While 1
If @Hour = 02 and @Min = 10 then
If ProcessExists("cmd.exe") then
_DoNothing()
else
Run("cmd.exe")
EndIf
EndIf
If @Hour = 06 and @Min = 50 then
ProcessClose("cmd.exe")
ExitLoop
EndIf
WEnd
Func _DoNothing()
EndFunc

Here CMD.exe is the name of my program.

Man this snippet cleared a lot of stuff in my mind if-else-run... must go in Examples Script Wiki.....

[font="verdana, geneva, sans-serif"] [/font]

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Glad it was helpful to you guys... These days I am getting busy a lot with the cafe work. We are actually upgrading all our PC's and installing new software etc.

----------------------------------------

:bye: Hey there, was I helpful?

----------------------------------------

My Current OS: Win8 PRO (64-bit); Current AutoIt Version: v3.3.8.1

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Welcome to the forum. This should do the work:

...

Here is optimized way:

Global $is_running = False

While 1
    If @HOUR = 02 And @MIN = 10 Then
        If Not $is_running Then
            If Not ProcessExists("cmd.exe") Then Run("cmd.exe")
            $is_running = True
        EndIf
    EndIf
    
    If @HOUR = 06 And @MIN = 50 Then
        If $is_running Then
            ProcessClose("cmd.exe")
;            $is_running = False ; not needed
            ExitLoop
        EndIf
    EndIf
    
    Sleep(1000)
WEnd
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more optimized ?

While 1
If @HOUR & @MIN = 0210 Then
  $pid = Run("cmd.exe")
  Sleep(16800000)  ; wait 4 hours and 40 minutes
  ProcessClose($pid)
  Sleep(69590000)  ; wait 19 hours and 19 minutes and 50 seconds. Allow 10 seconds timing difference due to start/stop process.  
EndIf
Sleep(1000)
WEnd

App: Au3toCmd              UDF: _SingleScript()                             

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Gee, thanks for all the optimizations, guys. I am kind of going in another direction, however. I found that the program was using up 25% CPU time, likely because it was polling the system time continuously while waiting for the criteria to be met. I put the following together in an attempt to minimize activity:

A = @HOUR
B = @MIN
If A > 6
   C = 25 - A
   E = 290
ElseIf A < 2
   C = A - 1
   E = 290
Else
   C = 0
   B = 70
   E = ( ( 60 * ( 5 - A ) ) + ( 70 - B )
EndIf
D = ( C * 60 ) + ( 70 - B )
Wait D minutes
Run ( "C:\Program.exe" )
Wait E minutes
ProcessClose ( "Program.exe" )

What do you think?

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Hey 6DAVEROO9

You can Try AdlibRegister to Poll Each Minute

It will not Trap You In A Loop

MoreOver it Will Consume Less CPU

Code

AdlibRegister('_MyFunc',60000)
Func _MyFunc()
    If @HOUR = 02 And @MIN = 10 Then
       If Not ProcessExists("cmd.exe") Then Run("cmd.exe")
    ElseIf @HOUR = 06 And @MIN = 50 Then
       If ProcessExists("cmd.exe") Then ProcessClose("cmd.exe")
    EndIf
EndFunc
Edited by PhoenixXL

My code:

PredictText: Predict Text of an Edit Control Like Scite. Remote Gmail: Execute your Scripts through Gmail. StringRegExp:Share and learn RegExp.

Run As System: A command line wrapper around PSEXEC.exe to execute your apps scripts as System (LSA). Database: An easier approach for _SQ_LITE beginners.

MathsEx: A UDF for Fractions and LCM, GCF/HCF. FloatingText: An UDF for make your text floating. Clipboard Extendor: A clipboard monitoring tool. 

Custom ScrollBar: Scroll Bar made with GDI+, user can use bitmaps instead. RestrictEdit_SRE: Restrict text in an Edit Control through a Regular Expression.

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Unless you have a While loop in there or a Do loop, the script is going to immediately run and close.

If I posted any code, assume that code was written using the latest release version unless stated otherwise. Also, if it doesn't work on XP I can't help with that because I don't have access to XP, and I'm not going to.
Give a programmer the correct code and he can do his work for a day. Teach a programmer to debug and he can do his work for a lifetime - by Chirag Gude
How to ask questions the smart way!

I hereby grant any person the right to use any code I post, that I am the original author of, on the autoitscript.com forums, unless I've specifically stated otherwise in the code or the thread post. If you do use my code all I ask, as a courtesy, is to make note of where you got it from.

Back up and restore Windows user files _Array.au3 - Modified array functions that include support for 2D arrays.  -  ColorChooser - An add-on for SciTE that pops up a color dialog so you can select and paste a color code into a script.  -  Customizable Splashscreen GUI w/Progress Bar - Create a custom "splash screen" GUI with a progress bar and custom label.  -  _FileGetProperty - Retrieve the properties of a file  -  SciTE Toolbar - A toolbar demo for use with the SciTE editor  -  GUIRegisterMsg demo - Demo script to show how to use the Windows messages to interact with controls and your GUI.  -   Latin Square password generator

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OK, so putting in the While loop on PhoenixXL's script got it compiled and running. I was still somewhat frustrated that I could not get my own script running, so I plugged away at it, and I finally came up with this. Launch at bedtime, and forget. It polls the system only once, and then does its thing.

Dim $A=@HOUR, $B=@MIN, $C, $D, $E
While 1
_CalcInterval ()
$D=(($C*60)+(70-$B))*60000
Sleep($D)
Run("C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\Steam.exe")
Sleep($E)
ProcessClose("Steam.exe")
WEnd
Func _CalcInterval ()
If $A > 6 Then
   $C = 25 - $A
   $E = 17400000
ElseIf $A < 2 Then
   $C = $A - 1
   $E = 17400000
Else
   $C=0
   $B=70
   $E=((60*(5-$A))+(70-$B))*60000
EndIf
EndFunc

My first functioning script! Newbie challenge #1... Accepted. And completed. F#ck yeah.

OK, maybe I've been spending a bit too much time at Memebase. Time to go outside. ;-)

Oh, and if I didn't mention it, the reason I needed this is that my ISP has unlimited downloads during that time window, so it is the best time to download game files.

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