Questions tagged [automation]
Making a process run completely or in part without the need of any user input once the process is started.
112
questions
118
votes
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answers
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How to monitor a folder and trigger a command-line action when a file is created or edited?
I need to set up some sort of a script on my Vista machine, so that whenever a file is added to a particular folder, it automatically triggers a background process that operates on the file. (The ...
- 1,554
44
votes
9
answers
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Automatically login and lock
I want to configure Windows 7 to login automatically after the computer is switched on. That's not because I'm lazy and don't like typing passwords. That's because I want programs that are configured ...
- 1,933
5
votes
1
answer
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Disable automatic driver update for only one device in Windows 10
Is there a way we can disable automatic driver update for a specific device in Windows 10? The updated driver for that device (Intel Management Engine Interface 11.x in particular) causes problems on ...
user612013
81
votes
4
answers
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How do I enable Automatic Logon in Windows 7 when I'm on a domain?
When Windows 7 is joined to a domain the option to automatically login is no longer available in the advanced User Management console. Since I am running a small home domain because of SharePoint and ...
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3
answers
8k
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How can I program the function keys on my MacBook?
I'd like to assign basic tasks to the function keys (or other keys if it's easier) on my MacBook. For example I'd like the following to happen when F1 (or whatever key) is pressed:
Launch Safari
Open ...
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585
votes
12
answers
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Automatically answer 'Yes' when using apt-get install
Is there a way to make apt-get install automatically choose "yes" upon the Do you want to continue [y/N]? confirmation dialog?
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3
answers
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How can I take hundreds of smaller images and create one big tiled image?
I have 251 images that are 128x128 in size; I need to create one big image that includes them all tiled together.
The image will be 32128x32128 in size if all goes well (Paint.NET says it will be 3....
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5
votes
5
answers
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Keeping up to date with updates? [closed]
I really like keeping up to date with the latest updates for my software.
I have Windows set to automatically download and install updates. But what about my other programs?
How do I keep my 3rd-...
- 2,175
3
votes
3
answers
16k
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Automatically deleting 'C:\Documents and Settings\user\Local Settings\Temp'
I'm trying to find a way to automatically clean/delete the temporary files from C:\Documents and Settings\user\Local Settings\Temp\ at shutdown/boot on my Windows XP Professional x64 SP2 machine.
The ...
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82
votes
15
answers
63k
views
Open registry directly to a given key?
I need to open a registry key such as the following in regedit.
HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Foo\Bar
Is there a tool which will navigate to the key for me, without my having to navigate the folders ...
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23
votes
3
answers
116k
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How to connect to a VPN at startup?
I need to have a computer at a branch office automatically connect to the corporate VPN to simplify the login process (not forcing the user to press network login down the right).
The client machine ...
- 2,070
18
votes
5
answers
83k
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Deleting emails from a sender after x days?
I have a web application that sends me many emails that are only for notification purposes - and so, are not important. There can be a great deal of these per day, and I sometimes forget to delete ...
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16
votes
9
answers
8k
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Are there any tools to periodically check if a web site is available?
Either online or local applications (Windows XP preferably). I'm specifically looking to be notified by email if the web site in question goes down.
I've tried the Firefox add on, Mr Uptime, but it ...
- 3,499
14
votes
3
answers
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Windows registry entries for default explorer view
I'm making an automated installer for Windows XP, and I want the default view to be the "details" view on all folders - that is, the effect gotten by setting one folder to the details view, then going ...
- 1,756
3
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3
answers
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How to automate installation of application
Before I went and ask it here, I came up and have red the contents of the links below:
https://superuser.com/questions/69751/
automate installation of your softwares
And came up with:
Ninite ...
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3
votes
2
answers
673
views
How can I have a multi-bootable USB KEY that has installers for many different OS's?
I own 4 different computers which I often shuffle the primary OS's around on. I specifically use Windows 7 Enterprise (work laptop) Windows 7 Ultimate (my primary desktop) Windows XP (my old laptop) ...
3
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2
answers
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How can I automate sending commands from Windows to Linux (WSL/Ubuntu)?
I would like to automate compiling my program for Linux through WSL running Ubuntu 20 so that I can set up an IDE task windows-side that will do the compilation for me on Linux.
I thought of making a ...
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2
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1
answer
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views
How to keep Windows 7 restarting the PC until no `restart requirement` is required?
I cannot get new updates via Windows Update because the OS requires to restart - to finish previous/current installing stuff I guess.
The restart requirement is as below snapshot.
How can I make my ...
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vote
3
answers
3k
views
How to bring application to front every 15 minutes on Mac OS X Lion?
I have a free or cheap little app called Desktop Task Timer LE that I've been using to track my time as I work on various projects. I'd like to have it pop up as the foreground app every 15 minutes to ...
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votes
7
answers
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How to Print to Save as PDF from a command line with Chrome or Chromium
Can I print to destination "Save as PDF" from a command line with Chrome or Chromium? I'd like to be able to automatically convert html files to PDF with Chrome's built-in functionality.
- 1,487
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votes
5
answers
34k
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Automate GUI tasks?
I have a Windows application which is deadware, and it lacks the option of exporting data into a file. The only way to extract data is to copy each line into the clipboard, and paste it in an editor.
...
- 5,751
20
votes
12
answers
3k
views
Is it possible to open several web pages when browser is started?
I am searching for browser option or plugin (it will be best if it is available in Web Kit browsers,Opera or Firefox - not IE) that allows me to open several web pages when it is initially started.
...
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13
votes
4
answers
7k
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Cannot get Windows snipping tool to auto run with AutoHotKey
I am trying to get Windows 7 sniping tool to run when I hit my PRINTSCREEN keyboard button with AUTOHOTKEY.
I have been unsuccessful so far though. Here is what I have for the AutoHotKey script.
...
- 5,042
13
votes
2
answers
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views
Set (Many) Programs' Window Size/Position
I'm looking for a solution similar to this, but for Windows 7 (64-bit), and not just for the terminal. This is also definitely not a duplicate of this question.
The Problem
Some programs remember ...
- 307
12
votes
5
answers
75k
views
Record a macro of windows commands
Using Windows 7, is there an in-built or third-party method of recording windows commands and being able to play them back?
As a very basic example of what I would like to be able to do, imagine ...
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9
votes
3
answers
17k
views
How to trigger a check for updates in Firefox programatically or from a command line?
Is there a command line switch for firefox.exe or an "about:" URL that will either force an update check or at least display the Help/About dialog, which checks for updates and tells if you're running ...
- 3,294
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votes
3
answers
4k
views
Is there any way to script Windows 10's "color filter" feature programmatically?
I'm trying to get Windows 10 to emulate the new "Digital Wellbeing" feature that Google released alongside Android 9. Basically it changes the screen to grey-scale at night-time to try and incentivize ...
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7
votes
3
answers
23k
views
Quickly running Outlook rules on demand?
I have a rule set up in MS Outlook 2007 that I do not want to run automatically, but I do want to run sporadically by hand. I would like to expedite that "by hand" process as much as possible. Is ...
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votes
3
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How do you update an Excel file (Data Refresh and update formulas) WITHOUT opening the file?
I have an Excel file that want to update and save automatically with out having to open it or manually interact with. Manually, I open the file up and hit data refresh which goes and does a SQL query ...
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4
votes
2
answers
3k
views
Sending mail from the command line, in an automated way
I want to be able to send a text file through an SMTP server of my ISP (port 25) to an email address on the internet, like my Office email address, or my GMail address. I have a basic Ubuntu 9.04 ...
- 2,780
4
votes
4
answers
11k
views
How to turn Out of Office on automatically when Outlook is closed?
Is it possible to make Outlook 2010 turn on the "Automatic Replies" feature when I close the application? I like to turn on "Out of Office" at the end of the day but in a hurry it's easily forgotten.
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4
votes
1
answer
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How to make getopts parameter optional
I wrote the following bash script as a budgeting tool to more accurately calculate (and moderate) when I last bought a pack of cigarettes.
In addition to -h for printing the output, it takes one other ...
- 12.8k
4
votes
2
answers
539
views
How to perform some action every time computer with Windows starts?
I'd like to perform some task (start a program) on a computer running Windows every time it's (re)started. It's remote computer and just placing shortcut in autostart doesn't work because it's run ...
- 5,574
3
votes
1
answer
775
views
How can I automatically let my Windows boot and shutdown?
I want my PC to boot at 9am and shutdown at 10pm every day, is there a way to do that on Windows? Of course maybe don't go off completely, but hibernate or something like that.
- 1,233
2
votes
1
answer
485
views
Auto program resizer
There are a lot of programs, which cannot remember what was its last window size. I need a program, which works in the background, and I can configure it, to resize all launched programs/windows on ...
- 217
2
votes
3
answers
1k
views
Is there a windows app or simple scripting way to persuade windows to shutdown after a process ends?
Can anyone suggest a way of asking Windows to shut down after it has finished doing something? For example it would be handy sometimes if burning a DVD or copying a lot of files to be able to set it ...
- 173
2
votes
2
answers
20k
views
Automate mouse button click with script or macro
I'm searching for a script or macro program which pushes the 4th or 5th mouse button every 5 seconds.
This script or macro program is for a friend who uses Windows 7 on an Asus notebook. I cannot try ...
- 21
2
votes
2
answers
10k
views
AutoHotKey: How to make my script run only within a specific program?
I have made an AHK script that adds metadata to video clips within Avid Media Composer (video editing software). It does this by entering all the necessary sub-menu's and sends mouse clicks to ...
- 1,218
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vote
4
answers
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views
How to automatically make my PC sleep and wake up?
I have a laptop back home with Windows Vista installed.
I want my computer to fall asleep automatically at 01:30 AM and wake up at 06:30 AM.
I have tried a lot, but making a .bat file which makes it ...
- 13
1
vote
2
answers
1k
views
Is it possible to make a (Windows 7) executable automatically run when I put in my thumb drive? [duplicate]
I have portable apps on a thumbdrive, and want to automatically run the "menu" app (E:\Applications\Windows\Start.exe) when I insert that drive.
I realize (or think I realize, based on a foggy ...
- 3,330
0
votes
1
answer
147
views
Sound Recording Application that Starts/Stops Automatically
I'm looking for a sound/voice recording application that I would just let run on my PC all the time. It would either start/stop based on whether there is "anything worth recording" or maybe just ...
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24
votes
5
answers
22k
views
Grep tool for XML [closed]
I am looking for a good tool to perform grep-like operations on XML - for example, extract certain attributes only.
Grep itself can't handle it - any DFA-equivalent tool can handle only non recursive ...
- 8,390
24
votes
2
answers
15k
views
Windows 10 keeps randomly adding keyboard layouts [duplicate]
I have this issue where windows randomly adds keyboard layouts for me. This is beyond annoyance and I'm starting to feel suicidal. (Okay maybe it's not that bad but it's still pretty annoying.)
I ...
- 241
24
votes
3
answers
42k
views
Is it possible to autocrop black borders of a video with ffmpeg?
I think it has a "blackness" video filter, which can determine if a picture sequence is black. Maybe it also has a filter to determine crop values automatically to remove black borders form edges of a ...
- 673
22
votes
5
answers
79k
views
Save attachments from many emails at once in Outlook?
Someone sent me 200 emails overnight, with one file attachment apiece. sigh
I'm expecting another 200 each night for the next three nights (the emails come from a server, so asking them to batch them ...
- 1,302
19
votes
6
answers
17k
views
Run script in OS X 10.6 on network connection. (like /etc/network/if-up.d/)
Is there any way to run a script when a network interface comes up in Mac OS X?
I've tried putting a script named ip-up in /etc/ppp but it doesn't seem to fire when I disconnect and reconnect to a ...
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18
votes
6
answers
55k
views
Automatically change time based on current location
I often move between 2 time zones, and expect my Windows 7 laptop to somehow automatically change the system time, being spoiled by the same feature on my cell phone. I always assumed that desktop O/...
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17
votes
4
answers
34k
views
How to get Thunderbird to archive messages automatically
I want Thunderbird 3.1.1 to automatically move old messages to archive. The definition of "old" should vary by folder. E.g., messages in the "Meeting minutes" folder should get archived after 7 days, ...
- 3,994
14
votes
3
answers
26k
views
Multithreaded Windows FOR batch command
do you know if there is a simple way to run FOR command in batch file on multiple threads? What's the point of having 4 cores if I can't run my tasks in 4 parallel threads?
For example, if I am ...
- 1,237
14
votes
5
answers
39k
views
What tool can generate MD5 from the command-line? [closed]
Is there any tool that can automate by script to generate file MD5?
I used to use Cygwin but I am looking for another solution without having Cygwin installed.
- 7,225