Windows XP - Run task every minute - minimized?

Question

My company seems to be hit by a virus that calls shutdown -r on all workstations. Until IT figures it out, I want to:

1. run a console program (shutdown-a) every minute
2. without it flashing a cmd.exe window on the screen.

Any suggestions?

Answer 1

Seeing the timing does not have to be exact, I would just write a batch file like.

:Start
shutdown -a
ping -n 60 127.0.0.1
Goto Start

You do get one cmd prompt on-screen (which can be minimised), but it doesn't keep flashing up.

Answer 2

Could it be this problem http://www.f-secure.com/v-descs/msblast.shtml#details

Can you move shutdown.exe out of C:\windows\system32 temporarily? I do that on my XP machine and then from the command line shutdown -a fails, can't find the command

Running a command minimized http://www.winhelponline.com/blog/run-bat-files-invisibly-without-displaying-command-prompt/

Answer 3

If you're able to install things, or just have python lying around anyway (Because let's face it, why not?)

import time, os
while 1:
    os.system("shutdown.exe -a")
    time.sleep(60)

Save that in a .pyw file, and run it. (I used this very basic idea to make a full-on scheduler a-la cron, to do all sorts of neat things. Useful!)