XP Screensaver causes Shutdown script to fail

[eejit]

Hi Guys,
Hi, I have a script that automatically shuts down all PCs in our Windows XP domain at 8pm, so that the backup doesn't fail due to open files (Did someone say SIMS?). The staff know that they are supposed to switch off their machines every night, and that if they forget and leave work open then they are likely to lose it.

Unfortunately the script fails if, as is most likely, the PC is showing a screen saver (even the default Windows XP screensaver without a password). If I go to a machine that should have been shut down and move the mouse to get rid of the screen saver, the PC immediately shows "Windows is shutting down" and shuts down. The script was not able to execute while the screensaver was running.

I do use the "force" switch for my script. Here is an example of the line:

SHUTDOWN -S -F -T 00

Any ideas would be a great help.
Cheers

[tarquel]

an idea then would be to disable screensavers and have it set to turn off the monitors after x amount of minutes

Its what I did until trying the logoff screensaver tool that dont seem to work 100%

Is the script running locally or are you using it on the DC and using the:

/m \\COMPUTERNAME

style way of doing this?

I dont shutdown pc's - on the basis that they might not be tuned on again and if I need to remtely fix something and its off - well I've have to "walk" to sort if out lol

i'll probably use the /l option to force a logoff instead, tho i notice it cant be used remotely grrrr

Cheers
Nath

[Geoff]

Use pskill to kill the screensaver process beforehand. Also psshutdown doesn't suffer from this problem.

[eejit]

an idea then would be to disable screensavers and have it set to turn off the monitors after x amount of minutes

I was hoping to not have to disable the screensaver, but if needs must, then I will. Can you set the monitor turn-off time from a group policy (I'm certainly not walking to the machines )

Is the script running locally or are you using it on the DC and using the:

/m \\COMPUTERNAME

style way of doing this?

I do it the remote way (/m \\%computername%) where all the PCs are read in from a script. I don't worry about them being left off as I like to do everything through group policies, so if I make a change they'll get it the next time they switch on, whenever that is.

Cheers for the help.

[eejit]

Use pskill to kill the screensaver process beforehand. Also psshutdown doesn't suffer from this problem.

Good idea. What is the screensaver process? I haven't noticed that before. Cheers.

[Geoff]

Use pslist to list running processes on a machine.

[tarquel]

I was hoping to not have to disable the screensaver, but if needs must, then I will. Can you set the monitor turn-off time from a group policy (I'm certainly not walking to the machines )

Indeed, but it aint the easiest thing to do lol - seems to work ok (weird why this is - you can configure most other stuff but power configuring is a joke lol)

Nath

[Geoff]

power configuring is a joke

http://www.terranovum.com/projects/e...ar/ez_gpo.html

[eejit]

Nice one Geoff, Thanks.

[tarquel]

Looks similar to the one i got (same name oddly) but was damn confusing. I'll have to try this one instead

Cheers
Nath

[eejit]

Use pskill to kill the screensaver process beforehand. Also psshutdown doesn't suffer from this problem.

Cheers Geoff, I just wanted to confirm that PSShutdown does not have this problem. It works if no one is logged on too.

Cheers for that.

[SpuffMonkey]

Sorry to resurrect this one - but I've been trying to use psshutdown to force user logoff in the evenings - but although they logoff just fine - the logoff scripts are not run - and thusly the limitlogon records get left on - leaving me with a manual tidy up job each morning. Anybody know how to avoid this problem?

[Geoff]

What format are the limitlogin records as? Can we devise a script to nuke them automatically somehow?

[ChrisH]

Scheduled task to delete files or DB records?

[SpuffMonkey]

What format are the limitlogin records as? Can we devise a script to nuke them automatically somehow?

Thats a proper IT answer! Instead of trying to make it work - lets just solve the problem - wish I'd thought of that! ops:

I dunno about the format - but I'll go and have a look now - Cheers Geoff