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#1
Admin apps in std accts AT LOGON (TS doesn't work)
I have a couple of low-level apps that should be started on logon, stay on the system tray, and require admin privileges. The most important of them is NextSensor: my processor tends to overheat, especially in summer (which is now starting here in the Southern Hemisphere and is predicted to be hotter than usual this year), and NextSensor throttles it down to safety when CPU temperature approaches dangerous levels. Actually, NextSensor is the main reason why I'm running 32-bit Windows 7: it won't run on 64-bit because it needs to run its own system drivers for that, and it doesn't have a 64-bit version yet.
Just putting a shortcut to NextSensor in the Startup folder will cause annoying UAC prompts every time I logon to a standard account. Using Task Scheduler works great if I logon to an admin account, but no setting I have tried will make it just quietly start and go to the system tray in a standard account:
- Setting it to run as an admin user in Task Scheduler (either as an admin account or the Administrators group) also forces me to check Run only when this user is logged on, otherwise it won't ever appear on the tray (Windows disables user interaction when this option is unchecked). Predictably (duh!), this causes the task not to run if I just log on to a standard account, even if I configure the task to run specifically at that account's logon. The "At logon of any user" trigger is ignored - it will only run when I logon to an admin account. It is also not there as a background process: I checked it in Task Manager ("Show processes from all users").
- Setting NextSensor to run as the standard user itself at that account's logon and checking "Run with the highest privileges" will make it run, but only after an annoying UAC prompt at logon, which I want to avoid. Of course, this is the same result I get just placing an ordinary shortcut to NextSensor at the Startup folder, which is much simpler and less resource-intensive.
- I also tried the Task Scheduler shortcut method described in a tutorial here, placing the shortcut to the task at Startup. A DOS window appears at logon for a brief fraction of a second, not long enough for me to read anything in it (if there is even anything to be read there), but the task won't be started. Again, it doesn't appear in Task Manager and is not in the background either - it's really not running.
Without the safeguard of NextSensor, I am avoiding doing any CPU-intensive task for now, until I solve this problem. Any suggestions? Thanks.