How to start a task when windows goes idle?

rickzor

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Feb 11, 2007
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I'm trying to make my computer to start a task when it goes idle, and then kill it when i start using the computer again. I tried for the first time windows scheduler, idle options are there but it doesn't work (beats me why).

I already tried third party tools and i was able to make an app to start when the computer goes idle but not to kill it when the computer is being used again :(

Any ideia how to do it?
 

compulsivebuilder

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Jun 10, 2011
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Idle time priority in the scheduler means "treat this program as very low priority" but that's not what you want, because the program runs whether the machine is idle or not.

The simple answer is to write your program as a screen saver. Seriously! That's how some of the "Seti at Home" stuff gets run while the machine is otherwise idle.
 

John_VanKirk

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Hi there,

If you are using Win-7 you can do that in task scheduler.
Open the task scheduler, select My Task Schedules, and choose Create Task (not create basic task).
Give it a name, click the Actions tab and choose the program you want to run
Choose the Conditions tab, click on "run if idle for xxx minutes", and check stop runing if computer ceases to be idle.

That should do it.
 

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