What my readers lack in numbers, they make up for in brains, good looks, and formidable Googling skills. I asked for a utility that would allow me to specify tasks (like defragging or backups) to happen upon shutting down Windows. An added wrinkle was that I wanted to be able to schedule those tasks, as I don't want to do a full backup/defrag every night, for example. Readers "miffed" and "dgeiser13" came up with some good ones, with dgeiser13's suggestion of Xecutor fitting my needs perfectly:
- It intercepts the normal Windows shutdown, so I don't have to do anything differently.
- I can schedule different things to happen depending on the day of the week.
- Due to the nature of the tool, I don't have to worry about these processes running while I'm working. No slow-downs, and no worries about files being locked for use during backups.
- Further reducing the risk of locks or conflicts, it appears to close many services before proceeding with its assigned task.
- Free for non-commercial use.
Fantastic! Thank you!
Perhaps there's a way to do this, but...
I want to do backups and drive defragmentation automatically, and according to a schedule. I could sort of set it up with the Windows Task Scheduler, but the problem with that is that it'll either fire up when I'm in the middle of working, bogging down my machine (and it's best not to have stuff open when backing up or defragging), or it'll fire up when Windows starts, and who wants to wait for backup and defrag to complete before you can do anything on your computer (as if Windows didn't start slowly enough as it is!)?
What I really want is for Windows to recognize Shutdown tasks, much the same way it recognizes Startup tasks. And I want to be able to schedule them. So when Windows recognizes a shutdown task (or tasks) for a given day it completely closes all other applications and non-OS-essential processes, runs the shutdown tasks, and then finishes shutting down when they're done. So when I'm done for the day, I shutdown as usual and walk away from my machine. All that long-running crap happens, and THEN Windows shuts down.
Someone must have solved this problem by now, right? I did find WrapUp, which almost fits the bill, except it doesn't do schedules, and it ain't free (not that I begrudge them that). Thoughts?
UPDATE: Solved!
I recently upgraded my machine and had been too lazy to replace Windows Notepad with the vastly superior Notepad2, but I just can't live like this any more. Here are instructions for completely replacing notepad.
UPDATE: Okay, neither method worked. Windows XP is like the liquid metal Terminator. You punch it in the face, but your fist goes right through, it reforms elsewhere, and then rips your arm off for your troubles and beats you to death with it. Trying these instructions next.
UPDATE 2: No love. I tried the batch file and everything. I don't seem to have a "ServicePackFiles" directory. While I was searching for it I noticed that damn Microsoft dog reads his book backwards, though.
Great, not only is a dog helping me search, the fucker can't even read.
UPDATE 3: Ah ha! While I didn't have a ServicePackFiles directory, there was a copy of notepad.exe sitting in c:\i386. When I included that in the batch script, that finally did the trick. So here's what worked for me:
- Download Notepad2.
- Unzip Notepad2.exe to somewhere.
- Rename it to Notepad.exe.
- Create a batch file in the same directory as the renamed Notepad.exe with these contents:
copy /-y notepad.exe C:\WINDOWS\System32\dllcache
copy /-y notepad.exe C:\i386
copy /-y notepad.exe C:\WINDOWS\ServicePackFiles\i386
copy /-y notepad.exe C:\WINDOWS\System32
copy /-y notepad.exe C:\WINDOWS
- Hit "y" then ENTER quickly in succession to confirm all the copies.
That should do the trick. If it doesn't, and if none of the other links above do the trick, you have my permission to weep quietly. Only other thing I can suggest is searching your whole drive (don't forget to allow searching of system files) for *notepad*. Add any locations you find to the batch file.
No guarantees, of course. You never know what's going to break Windows forever. Follow at your own risk.
I have wished for a free utility like this on many an occasion, and now my wish has come true!
Great Windows Explorer tip over at LifeHacker. I immediately set up three folders with that little green arrow. It's so nice to be able to pick those out of the crowd instantly.
Analysts are worried about increased metadata embarrassments when the new version of Windows launches:
For example, a user might use "good customers" and "bad customers" as keywords on contract files. If such a contract is sent to the customer with the keyword still attached, it could cause embarrassment or even loss of business, the analysts wrote.
Since metadata and searching are going to be prominent, key features in the new version of Windows, folks aren't going to be able to casually sling Office documents around anymore.
