Run a Program Without User Being Logged On

Question

I am running a Windows 7 installation, and I want to be able to run an application when there is no user logged in. The reason for this is that my application is a monitoring tool, and we want to be able to monitor 24/7 even if the computer reboots. From what I've gathered on the net, there are two ways of doing this:

1. Create a service and run it under an Administrator account

2. Use windows group policies to set up a logon script: This is where things get a bit unclear, as people seem to confuse running a program in the background without a user logged in with running a program just after user has logged in. If I setup my program to run in this mode, will it run if no one logs in?

Can you comment on either #1, #2, which one you would recommend and why? Maybe there is another way I do not know about?

Thank you for the help,

Solution 1

You can run a program when no one is logged in, by using the Windows Task Scheduler. However, if your application needs to interact with a user, it may not work exactly how you'd like.

Check out the On Startup Trigger for more info (might be under Advanced config of a new task).

More information here: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc748841.aspx

Solution 2

I would suggest creating a service which you can do from any .exe with this method.

This will make your program run on startup without having to login. If you subsequently need to interact with the program you can connect to the console session.