Free program that will reboot your PC (even a thin client)

DucatiBoy · Post by **DucatiBoy** » Wed Dec 10, 2008 6:21 pm

Hi all,

A friend of mine (Boondocs) who recently got a magic jack was telling me about it and how he is running it on a windows thin client. It's a slimmed down version of xp. Well he wanted a way to reboot his machine every so often automatically, and since his machine didn't have the scheduler installed, I just threw together this little program (or these couple of programs).

Windows only (only tested on XP, but should run on more).

He thought that others might find them useful so I'm posting the links here so you all can download them if it's something you need.

Anyway, the first thing he asked for was something that would reboot his machine every 3 days at 3AM. So I made this:

http://www.sminntech.com/rebootme/RebootMe.zip

It's just a small exe which you can stick right into your startup folder, and when your machine starts, it sits in your system tray and in 3 days at 3 am, it will reboot your machine.

The more we talked, he thought it would be cool to change the settings. So I made this:

http://www.sminntech.com/rebootme/RebootMePlus.zip

It has configurable settings. But so that the settings remain after a reboot, there is an associated INI file that needs to be in the same folder the exe file is. There is also no installer, just make a folder, and stick both the exe and ini files in it. Put a shortcut in the startup folder.

With his thin client you need to disable EWF so the writes make it to his flash media. If you need help with this let me/us know.

Anyway, try them out. Use them, don't use them. If you find it handy, all I want is a thank you.

Thanks all!
DucatiBoy

newtoncd · Post by **newtoncd** » Wed Dec 10, 2008 7:10 pm

http://www.dimaware.com has a freeware program called ShutDownOne Home. It works great.

Boondocs · Post by **Boondocs** » Wed Dec 10, 2008 8:11 pm

Hey thanks man! Works great without all the other fluff.

DucatiBoy · Post by **DucatiBoy** » Wed Dec 10, 2008 9:45 pm

that dimaware program looks pretty good. If I found that before I wrote this app, I probably wouldn't have. I guess mine is still worth something since it's most likely much simpler and much smaller... if that means anything.

I'll leave it up, if anyone wants to use it feel free. If anyone chooses the dimaware one, that's cool too.

zmaddmattz · Post by **zmaddmattz** » Wed Dec 10, 2008 10:18 pm

Hey, Nice program. I am in the proccess of implementing a reboot into my Call forwarding assistant program. great work. I'm having a problem with the minimizing to the try. did you use api or vb for the tray function?

HolmanGT · Post by **HolmanGT** » Thu Dec 11, 2008 3:29 am

DucatiBoy,

Did your friend ever say why he wanted to reboot every three days? Seem like a fairly big wast of time and resources to reboot a machine that is sitting in the corner doing nothing but running one program.

It is not like you start and stop MJ every few hours and might be worried about memory leaks.

My thin client goes sometimes for months without a reboot, in fact I can't remember the last time I rebooted it. Mother nature did about three months back during a lightning storm but obviously that was not by my design.

Boondocs · Post by **Boondocs** » Thu Dec 11, 2008 9:24 am

HolmanGT wrote:DucatiBoy,

Did your friend ever say why he wanted to reboot every three days? Seem like a fairly big wast of time and resources to reboot a machine that is sitting in the corner doing nothing but running one program.

It is not like you start and stop MJ every few hours and might be worried about memory leaks.

My thin client goes sometimes for months without a reboot, in fact I can't remember the last time I rebooted it. Mother nature did about three months back during a lightning storm but obviously that was not by my design.

I figured that rebooting the machine would help clear any virtual memory that is being used during those three days. Once my verizon phone service turns off i will run the TC and see how it preforms without reboot. I only have 256 ram in the TC right now.

I also see the MJ once you receive or make a call the memory usage jumps to 32 megs and stays there. I moved my ram drive to 48megs last night to see if that helps.

HolmanGT · Post by **HolmanGT** » Thu Dec 11, 2008 4:45 pm

Boondocs wrote:
HolmanGT wrote:DucatiBoy,

Did your friend ever say why he wanted to reboot every three days? Seem like a fairly big wast of time and resources to reboot a machine that is sitting in the corner doing nothing but running one program.

It is not like you start and stop MJ every few hours and might be worried about memory leaks.

My thin client goes sometimes for months without a reboot, in fact I can't remember the last time I rebooted it. Mother nature did about three months back during a lightning storm but obviously that was not by my design.
I figured that rebooting the machine would help clear any virtual memory that is being used during those three days. Once my verizon phone service turns off i will run the TC and see how it preforms without reboot. I only have 256 ram in the TC right now.

I also see the MJ once you receive or make a call the memory usage jumps to 32 megs and stays there. I moved my ram drive to 48megs last night to see if that helps.

Boondocs,

Oh - with 256 ram you got to do what you got to do.

But the Ram disk is only used during, Browsing, and program installation (primarily). So it becomes a "Catch 22" the bigger you make the ram Drive the less ram you have for applications to run in. The Ram drive is actually a self cleaning Temp directory or trash can if you prefer. As Stroths mentioned some place if you keep it at the factory defaults you will experience a lot of stutter when watching Vids like Dan & his kids dogs and some occasional system hang ups. Set it to 64 megs (if you have the ram to spare) and those problems disappear.

Problem number two is right now they want about $30 to $60 dollars for a a Gig of DDR ram. You can shop around eBay and maybe do better.

I use 512 or 1GB for my ram and aways set the Ram Drive to 64 megs. This configuration seems to be the smoothest configuration I have found.

davrow · Post by **davrow** » Thu Dec 11, 2008 6:59 pm

HolmanGT - I boot nightly.

While I am forever grateful to you for the help you gave me in setting up my TC, there is a small problem with using the image.

TeamViewer uses the same ID Number for all of us. And only the one who most recently booted can access their TC.

So, not for the sake of MJ, but for the sake of TeamViewer, I reboot.

Someday I'll get around to fixing the root cause, instead of just treating the symptom...

HolmanGT · Post by **HolmanGT** » Thu Dec 11, 2008 7:11 pm

davrow wrote:HolmanGT - I boot nightly.

While I am forever grateful to you for the help you gave me in setting up my TC, there is a small problem with using the image.

TeamViewer uses the same ID Number for all of us. And only the one who most recently booted can access their TC.

So, not for the sake of MJ, but for the sake of TeamViewer, I reboot.

Someday I'll get around to fixing the root cause, instead of just treating the symptom...

Yes I am aware of that problem, but you are the first one that has mentioned it to me. I was hoping it was only peculiar to my set up - so much for wishful thinking.

Contact TeamViewer Support they have a method of removing the old ID and install a new ID. I have it somewhere and if I can find it I will post it here. But your changes of getting it from them verses me finding my copy ... well enough on that.

My apologies for any inconvenience this has caused anyone. Also if you set it to accept LAN access just use the IP address and it wont' go out on the net and it won't use the ID number.

PS - I will go look for the TeamViewer FIX email right now.

HolmanGT · Post by **HolmanGT** » Thu Dec 11, 2008 7:58 pm

davrow wrote:HolmanGT - I boot nightly.

While I am forever grateful to you for the help you gave me in setting up my TC, there is a small problem with using the image.

TeamViewer uses the same ID Number for all of us. And only the one who most recently booted can access their TC.

So, not for the sake of MJ, but for the sake of TeamViewer, I reboot.

Someday I'll get around to fixing the root cause, instead of just treating the symptom...

Mr. D,

Here is the fix straight from the TeamViewer experts:

To solve the problem please delete the according registry entries for TeamViewer on the CLONED system.

First please close TeamViewer completely.
If you run TeamViewer as service (option 'start TeamViewer automatically with windows') open the service-administration and stop the service 'TeamViewer3'
Please also open the taskmanager, go to tab 'processes' and show there the processes of all users. If you will find there 'teamviewer.exe' or 'teamviewer_host.exe' close it manually.

After that delete following folders from your registry:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\TeamViewer3
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\TeamViewer3

Best regards

Claudius Eisele

-----------------------
TeamViewer GmbH * www.teamviewer.com

Kuhnbergstr. 16 * D-73037 Göppingen
Tel. +49 (0)7161 60692 50 * Fax +49 (0)7161 60692 79

Handelsregister Ulm HRB 534075 * Geschäftsführer Dr. Tilo Rossmanith

If this fixes it for you please let me know, when I was trying to change it all I had was the original machine that generated the ID in question and try as I might there was no way of changing the ID and I assumed it was because it is machine specific. Remember their has to be a fix for this because this is how all IT groups update new machines. Clone a known working unit and blast them with the image as they come out of the box.

Boondocs · Post by **Boondocs** » Fri Dec 12, 2008 10:05 am

HolmanGT wrote:
Boondocs wrote:
HolmanGT wrote:DucatiBoy,

Did your friend ever say why he wanted to reboot every three days? Seem like a fairly big wast of time and resources to reboot a machine that is sitting in the corner doing nothing but running one program.

It is not like you start and stop MJ every few hours and might be worried about memory leaks.

My thin client goes sometimes for months without a reboot, in fact I can't remember the last time I rebooted it. Mother nature did about three months back during a lightning storm but obviously that was not by my design.
I figured that rebooting the machine would help clear any virtual memory that is being used during those three days. Once my verizon phone service turns off i will run the TC and see how it preforms without reboot. I only have 256 ram in the TC right now.

I also see the MJ once you receive or make a call the memory usage jumps to 32 megs and stays there. I moved my ram drive to 48megs last night to see if that helps.
Boondocs,

Oh - with 256 ram you got to do what you got to do.

But the Ram disk is only used during, Browsing, and program installation (primarily). So it becomes a "Catch 22" the bigger you make the ram Drive the less ram you have for applications to run in. The Ram drive is actually a self cleaning Temp directory or trash can if you prefer. As Stroths mentioned some place if you keep it at the factory defaults you will experience a lot of stutter when watching Vids like Dan & his kids dogs and some occasional system hang ups. Set it to 64 megs (if you have the ram to spare) and those problems disappear.

Problem number two is right now they want about $30 to $60 dollars for a a Gig of DDR ram. You can shop around eBay and maybe do better.

I use 512 or 1GB for my ram and aways set the Ram Drive to 64 megs. This configuration seems to be the smoothest configuration I have found.

Yep that's the next step to upgrade the ram. I am using the stock img from HP and removed a lot of the extras that were not needed. Once I get the upgraded ram I will see how it preforms. Either way I am very impressed with this little unit thus far.

davrow · Post by **davrow** » Fri Dec 12, 2008 3:42 pm

George (err, should I call you Claudius now?),

Thanks for going to the trouble of looking up that old email for us.

I'll try that tonight (or maybe tomorrow morning

) and let you know how it works out.

David

VaHam · Post by **VaHam** » Fri Dec 12, 2008 6:30 pm

I am confused. How come you guys don't have task scheduler? I know it is in the stock install from HP all you have to do is go into services and turn it on. Then you can use it just like on any other xp machine. I do here on all three of my machines.

I setup the nightly 3am reboots to get updates from MagicJack when ever they come out.

Boondocs · Post by **Boondocs** » Fri Dec 12, 2008 7:38 pm

I can't find it on mine. I looked into the services and found it but there is no icon in the control panel. I have it in classic mode and still no icon. Also are you using the 5710 img.

Here is a pic.

HolmanGT · Post by **HolmanGT** » Fri Dec 12, 2008 9:11 pm

VaHam wrote:I am confused. How come you guys don't have task scheduler? I know it is in the stock install from HP all you have to do is go into services and turn it on. Then you can use it just like on any other xp machine. I do here on all three of my machines.

I setup the nightly 3am reboots to get updates from MagicJack when ever they come out.

"I setup the nightly 3am reboots to get updates from MagicJack when ever they come out."

Now that it the best reason for a nightly reboot I have heard to date. !!!

For what it is worth I have it on my T5730.

ret27m · Post by **ret27m** » Fri Dec 12, 2008 10:53 pm

George, im useing you img on my 5710, how do i go get MJ updates? will a restart do it or do i need to do something special? thanks

Boondocs · Post by **Boondocs** » Fri Dec 12, 2008 11:02 pm

I guess it's not on the 5710's HP img. That's why I ask my friend to make the program for me. ehh either way works.

DucatiBoy · Post by **DucatiBoy** » Sat Dec 13, 2008 9:54 am

If the icon might be gone but if you still have it you can click on

Start - run - type Taskschd.msc - hit enter.

See if that brings it up.

I always got there from clicking on Start - Programs - accessories - system tools. But you would think it would be in the control panel too.

Boondocs · Post by **Boondocs** » Sat Dec 13, 2008 1:41 pm

Nope says it's not there.

Thunder · Post by **Thunder** » Sat Dec 13, 2008 7:00 pm

That's so weird. Task scheduler shows up on my 5710.

HolmanGT · Post by **HolmanGT** » Sat Dec 13, 2008 9:36 pm

ret27m wrote:George, im useing you img on my 5710, how do i go get MJ updates? will a restart do it or do i need to do something special? thanks

Ya know, I am not sure. I always check every day to see if there is a new version for down load and manually update. However it has been slim pickens lately as far as anything new.

But I think it takes a machine reboot or unplug/replug the MJ.

Maybe someone will put us straight on this.

I seem to remember when the killer update was around people only got burnt when they lost power or rebooted. (???)

PS - if this response in late, my Internet service has been down for almost twenty four hours and I am suffering extreme withdrawal, shacks, cold sweat, and general depression. I Think I will be OK but you never know with something as traumatic as this.

HolmanGT · Post by **HolmanGT** » Sat Dec 13, 2008 9:39 pm

Thunder wrote:That's so weird. Task scheduler shows up on my 5710.

Thunder,

I don't have a 10 handy but it shows up on my daughters 20 and on my 30 and to the best of my recollection it always showed up on my 10s.

Has it already been asked what version OS update they are using, I am sure it has but just getting my Internet connection back I am too busy catching up on old emails to stop and dig thru this thread.

VaHam · Post by **VaHam** » Sat Dec 13, 2008 9:49 pm

Yes I am using the HP 5710 image from HP (SP36064.exe). Did you try enabling it, then doing a commit and rebooting? Maybe the icon is not there unless it is enabled. It has been so long since I set mine up I can't remember.

Boondocs · Post by **Boondocs** » Sun Dec 14, 2008 12:29 pm

Weird shows its enabled.

Boondocs · Post by **Boondocs** » Sun Dec 14, 2008 12:32 pm

never mind I found the problem. I'm using the SP29705 not the SP36064. I will load it later on today and try it out.

Boondocs · Post by **Boondocs** » Sun Dec 14, 2008 5:51 pm

That was it. I reloaded the image from here
http://h20000.www2.hp.com/bizsupport/Te ... vc-51791-1

and that gave me the scheduled tasks on the control panel. I did have to enable it in the services.

magicJack and magicJack Plus Support, Reviews, FAQs and Tricks

Free program that will reboot your PC (even a thin client)

Free program that will reboot your PC (even a thin client)

Task Scheduler

Re: Task Scheduler