KillBox - beta testers, suggestions wanted

[atomizer]

[Moderator note: Users of any 12bytes software should be aware that we are not accepting any 12bytes software programs due to issues with frequent license changes.]

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hi all! this is the first time i'm getting an app ready for submitting to PFC, so we'll see how it goes!

the official description...

KillBox is a tiny application that will Logoff, Suspend, Shutdown, Reboot or Hibernate your computer. Features include:

* portable! no installation necessary
* preform requested action (Logoff, Suspend, etc.) according to set hours and/or minutes
* preform requested action (as above) when a specified process terminates
* preform requested action when the timer expires OR selected process terminates – whichever happens first


for full details and the d/l link, please see mywebsite

i'd like for a couple others to test KillBox. i have only tested it on 7 x64, but it should work fine with any unicode windows (2000, xp, vista, 7) that has shutdown.exe and takes the same arguments

right now my stuff is unlicensed freeware, but i will likely change this in the future. for these tiny utils it really doesn't concern me, but as i release more complex stuff i guess i'll need to look at some kind of freeware licensing.

any suggestions are welcome! since i'm all new to this and have never released any software before, i'd appreciate any input!

[ChemZ]

Can't find the zip file! Your download link doesn't point to it, so couldn't test it.

Suggestion:
- Perform requested action if download/upload speed is less than a certain speed for a certain period of time
- Perform requested action if computer has been inactive for a certain period of time
- Terminate a program(s) or processes after a certain period of time? (It is called KillBox after all )

[guinness]

- Perform requested action if download/upload speed is less than a certain speed for a certain period of time

This would require a file to be constantly downloaded/uploaded to get the speed or the alternative is WMI & CurrentBandwidth, but this will be the Speed of the NIC and not your connection speed.

- Perform requested action if computer has been inactive for a certain period of time

WMI & CurrentDiskQueueLength

[atomizer]

Can't find the zip file! Your download link doesn't point to it, so couldn't test it.

Suggestion:
- Perform requested action if download/upload speed is less than a certain speed for a certain period of time
- Perform requested action if computer has been inactive for a certain period of time
- Terminate a program(s) or processes after a certain period of time? (It is called KillBox after all )

stupid "permalinks" -- download links fixed. thanks for pointing that out. file link at bottom of this page

regarding your suggestions...
1) i don't think i'd be interested in implementing this, but if you tell me the reason for this idea i just might change my mind
2) does the built in power manager not do this? or do you mean for like a one-time thing where you wouldn't want to change the power cfg?
3) force terminate and then preform requested action? i like that - that will go on the ToDo list!

[guinness]

Sorry to reply, it does do that you are right, but I think ChemZ would like to have it at the click of a button. I also gave a link to the WMI MSDN entry or if you want it in AutoIt have a look here: http://www.autoitscript.com/forum/topic ... _p__820345

I think it would be a useful addition.

[guinness]

Tested: Portable

A couple of points to improve the code, when it minimises to the TrayMenu it has the Default Menu (so the Program can be Paused!) therefore add Opt("TrayMenuMode", 1) to the top of your AU3 Script to disable the Default Menu.

When all the GUICtrlCreateUpdown's are set at 0 if I click on the "Start Timer" shouldn't it Shutdown/LogOff automatically, if not then maybe disable the GUICtrlCreateButton() e.g.

Code: Select all

; Stops the Button flickering!
If GUICtrlRead($ID_Up1) > 0 Or GUICtrlRead($ID_Up2) > 0 Then
	If GUICtrlGetState($Button) > 80 Then GUICtrlSetState($Button, 80) ; 80 = Normal ; 144 = Disabled ; 576 = Focused.
ElseIf GUICtrlRead($ID_Up1) <= 0 And GUICtrlRead($ID_Up2) <= 0 Then
	If GUICtrlGetState($Button) = 80 Then GUICtrlSetState($Button, 144) ; 80 = Normal ; 144 = Disabled ; 576 = Focused.
EndIf

Maybe when hovering over the TrayMenu Icon use TraySetToolTip() to set how long is left until the operation (for example?)

[ChemZ]

1) Think it could be useful with torrents. Sometimes I would like to shutdown when I finish a torrent or if nobody is downloading off me for a while
2) XP's built in power manager only supports system standby and hibernate. Not shutdown, logoff or reboot (at least not to my knowledge! )
3) Sweeeet!

[atomizer]

Tested: Portable
A couple of points to improve the code, when it minimises to the TrayMenu it has the Default Menu (so the Program can be Paused!) therefore add Opt("TrayMenuMode", 1) to the top of your AU3 Script to disable the Default Menu.

i did that intentionally in case you wanted to abort the action quickly, however, yes, it's not very pretty and i should probably change the way it works. to keep things dirt simple, i think just using icon to restore the GUI would be sufficient with nothing more. form there you could minimize again, or quit

When all the GUICtrlCreateUpdown's are set at 0 if I click on the "Start Timer" shouldn't it Shutdown/LogOff automatically, if not then maybe disable the GUICtrlCreateButton() e.g.

Maybe when hovering over the TrayMenu Icon use TraySetToolTip() to set how long is left until the operation (for example?)

i think if you wanted to do that, you may as well just use the start menu rather than run killbox, however i will pop a MsgBox() if someone clicks without setting timer or process

[atomizer]

Sorry to reply, it does do that you are right, but I think ChemZ would like to have it at the click of a button. I also gave a link to the WMI MSDN entry or if you want it in AutoIt have a look here: http://www.autoitscript.com/forum/topic ... _p__820345
I think it would be a useful addition.

tell me if i'm wrong, but i don't see how you could implement a shutdown.exe action based on network using HDD idle time since windows could always start doing something even if the users isn't, whether it be defragging, writing to the MFT, logs, search indexing, etc..

i haven't looked into monitoring network bandwidth directly yet, but you think it's not really doable as i understand it?

[guinness]

i think if you wanted to do that, you may as well just use the start menu rather than run killbox, however i will pop a MsgBox() if someone clicks without setting timer or process

I am saying before someone else does and since I have a bit of knowledge about AutoIt I thought I would help out.

tell me if i'm wrong, but i don't see how you could implement a shutdown.exe action based on network using HDD idle time since windows could always start doing something even if the users isn't, whether it be defragging, writing to the MFT, logs, search indexing, etc..

Its possible! It's just a case of looking through the AutoIt Forums There is a WinAPI Function I found today that you could use. If you leave the PC doing nothing then its highly unlikely to do anything, hence why they have this option in the Power Config!

i haven't looked into monitoring network bandwidth directly yet, but you think it's not really doable as i understand it?

It is, check the Example I provided. But it will only show the Speed of the NIC and not the Internet Speed. Plus with the Examples you could monitor the packets read and determine if anything has changed at a certain interval with a While...WEnd Loop and then execute Shutdown.exe

I am only trying to offer advice

[atomizer]

@guinness - don't get me wrong my friend, advice and help is exactly why i'm here! i very much appreciate the input from everyone so far.

regarding preforming an action immediately when no options are set and user clicks the timer button, maybe i'm not understanding what you're getting at - i am 'thick' sometimes. i don't see how that would be easier than clicking the start button > shutdown. please tell me if i'm not understanding what you mean, otherwise, my thinking is to keep this little bugger as little as reasonably possible. this is not to say i won't add something though

regarding the network thing, that sounds interesting. i have to say though, i kind of feel guilty accepting coding help unless i open the source. i'm not hard up against this, but i need to think on that more.

again, thanks for the input!

[guinness]

regarding preforming an action immediately when no options are set and user clicks the timer button, maybe i'm not understanding what you're getting at - i am 'thick' sometimes. i don't see how that would be easier than clicking the start button > shutdown. please tell me if i'm not understanding what you mean, otherwise, my thinking is to keep this little bugger as little as reasonably possible. this is not to say i won't add something though

My point was instead of people saying "Well I set the timer to 0h & 0m and then clicked Start Timer, why didn't it Shutdown?" Just $GUI_DISABLE the Button so they (the user) knows that they can't do anything unless they set a time, it's a cosmetic feature more than anything.

i have to say though, i kind of feel guilty accepting coding help unless i open the source. i'm not hard up against this, but i need to think on that more.

I'm not worried!

I thought I would help because I know what it's like when people have suggested new ideas and I have felt a little out of my depth in the past.

[atomizer]

ok, i WAS misunderstanding your point regarding the no options > button click. yeah, i will absolutely change that - already on the ToDo list, along with a couple other suggestions here

[guinness]

Don't think for 1 second I am saying make the application Open Source, I just don't know your coding style and what you know about AutoIt.

[atomizer]

LOL - put it this way: when you're referring to me, "coding" and "style" probably don't belong in the same sentence

i try to be as efficient as i can, but there's far more i don't know about AutoIt than what i do know. i still have a hard time with RegEx and arrays and only have a cursory knowledge of dll calls