Basic Question

[uanimosity]

Hi Everyone.

I have pretty much 0 Coding experience, and am trying to learn as i go in my company. We have a deployment tool that runs as a system process on installed machines in our environment. I'm using batch files right now to try and perform the packages required but it's getting increasingly difficult when dealing with older software/programs.

I've been told by a Co-woker that as awesome as AutoIT is, it needs an active desktop session to run; it won't run as a system process. I was just looking to make sure this was true before i proceeded with my course of learning.

Any helpful comments would be appreciated.

[weaponx]

You need to be clear when you say "active desktop". This could mean the Windows module that shows web content as your wallpaper or it could mean there is a user logged in and the system is not locked.

You can't use the Send() and MouseClick() functions while the system is locked or logged off, instead you use ControlSend() and ControlClick(). This will limit the usefullness to only applications that have standard controls that can be seen with the AutoIt Window Info tool.

Also read the FAQ about running as a service:

http://www.autoitscript.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=37289

[uanimosity]

Thanks for the Info WeaponX, i meant Active desktop as a user is logged in. I Looked at the service FAQ but not quite sure i understand it. i'll try to explain my situation better.

The deployment tool used installs itself and runs packages as a service. The packages can be either stored, launched or executed depending on how they were built. The catch is most of our users log off of their sessions at night; which up to now hasn't been a big deal with the packages we have thus far. The problem is we're trying to update everyone to the newest version of Citrix and we want to do it in our package system for deployment. I have a batch file made that will do some of the older versions of uninstall, but much older (9.200.44376) that were built for win 98 don't work automated.

I came across This post from Jonathan: http://support.citrix.com/forums/thread.js...rue&#473645 stating that AutoIT could handle the scripted uninstall, which is why I've become interested in this tool.

[weaponx]

My first post was a script that pushes software out silently using Psexec.

http://www.autoitscript.com/forum/index.ph...mp;hl=archrival

All of these scripts work even if the computer is locked or logged off because there is no keyboard or mouse interaction.

It basically uses psexec with the option to copy the file to the remote computer before running, this provides a "proctor" script if you will.

Lets say I wanted to install Spybot remotely and I have the installer EXE out on a share that I have permission to, psexec will copy my host script up to the client machine, which is executed using MY permissions, therefore giving the host script access to the share even if the end user doesn't.

Edited February 22, 2008 by weaponx

[uanimosity]

We looked at PSexec, but we have multiple offices working over a VPN WAN, and because PSexec doesn't always respond back on the same port it didn't work with our firewall system.. Out deployment system is already in place and for the most part it's working fine. its just 1 software package we're having the issue with.