How to run my program on before logout on windows XP?
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11-07-2019 - |
Question
I am looking for an inverse version of "RunOnceEx".
RunOnceEx does run some program, before the user's shell(desktop&taskbar) start. The login progress will not continue before the runonceex complete.
I want to do exact the same but on user logout. When she/he logout, all running program shutdown, leaving shell(desktop&taskbar), then ""I wish my program will be execute this moment"", finally logout.
I think it is possible because the "mobsync.exe" is doing that. But I cannot find where and how to do it.
Solution
To run this only for the current user, you can use WMI to get an information when a shutdown/logout occurs.
Either you write a small C# (or any other language that can use WMI) application or vbs script to listen on the Win32_ComputerShutdownEvent WMI event.
An example C# app can be found here in this question: Get Log off event from system
OTHER TIPS
Warning, as said here, gpedit.msc
will allow you to configure a logoff script for all users.
If you need that script only for one user, you need to declare it directly in the registry, both in HKCU
and HKLM
.
found in the first result on google for me
To execute a program you can create a script to run it and use group policy to enforce it. In Group Policy Editor navigate to User Configuration-->Windows Settings-->Scripts (Logon/Logoff)
If you want a running program to execute code on logoff, then you should hook the WM_QUERYENDSESSION
message and look for an lParam
value of ENDSESSION_LOGOFF
(0x80000000).
It's important to test for this lParam
value because the other ones indicate a "forced close" - i.e. your process may be killed before your code is even allowed to run. In fact, most shutdown/session-end messages are only intended to give you an opportunity to run last-minute cleanup code and aren't that safe to respond to with long-running actions; but this particular combination should be OK.
Note: I've never tried to actually run a separate process in response to the WM_QUERYENDSESSION
message. It's possible that the window manager will disallow this, like it does during shutdown. Try it and see, I guess.
If you're in a .NET environment (you didn't specify), a quicker way is to add an event handler to the Microsoft.Win32.SystemEvents.SessionEnding
event.
What you need is an implementation of GINA. You can run your custom commands in WlxIsLogoffOk function, which gets called when the user initiates a logoff
Once you create the proper GINA dll you can register it here: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon\@GinaDLL
Here is an implementation which may fit your needs (it provides a Logoff registry key where you could specify your command): http://wwwthep.physik.uni-mainz.de/~frink/newgina_pre09/readme.html
As VonC and TFD already mentioned, the Group Policy Editor is just another way to manipulate the registry.
Just make with gpedit the changes (in Userconfig - Windows Settings - Scripts) you like and afterwards take a look in the registry at [HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\System\Scripts]
to find out how you can do that directly.
Also on my PC (hanging in a domain) is a hidden folder C:\WINDOWS\System32\GroupPolicy
with subfolders for user and machine. Both having additional subfolders called Shutdown and Startup. Maybe you can also use these ones.
If you need something simple and working for a single (or any) user you can make a simple application in C++ or C# for example.
The simplest is having a C# in tray (by simply adding the tray component to the form) and register and event handler for the FormClosing event. It'd look like this:
private void Form1_FormClosing(object sender, FormClosingEventArgs e)
{
if (e.CloseReason != CloseReason.UserClosing)
{
// It's not the user closing the application,
// Let's do whatever you want here, for example starting a process
Process notePad = new Process();
notePad.StartInfo.FileName = "notepad.exe";
notePad.StartInfo.Arguments = "ProcessStart.cs";
notePad.Start();
}
}
So your application will be started with Windows or with the user. It'll wait (using a little bit of memory) and will do something when the system shuts down, or the user log off, etc (by checking "CloseReason" above).