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.

See if this will help"

Mike Lin's Home Page

Right click on a blank area below any items listed that you want the app to run on and select "add".

logicearth said:

I'm not too sure about your processor...but Windows already automatically throttles the processor down using the built in power management features of the processor. By opening Power Options and getting into the advance options you can set the minimum level. AMD also has it software for that called Cool'n'Quiet. AMD Cool'n'Quiet Technology

Logicearth, we are talking about different things. Yes, AMD has Cool'n'Quiet, and both Vista and Windows 7 have native drivers for it. But what Cool'n'Quiet does is throttle down the processor at times of low demand. There won't be any noticeable difference in your user experience if you're just quietly typing a text in Word and the processor runs at 1 GHz instead of 3 GHz. So, the CnQ driver throttles the processor down to that speed, in order to save power, make it cooler and, depending on your hardware, allow the CPU cooling fan to run slower and less noisy (hence the name).

If the current tasks demand more processing power and speed, however, the driver will automatically respond by speeding up the CPU, either stepwise or straight to full power. Such cycles can be alternated in milliseconds, both up and down.

By contrast, what NextSensor does is constantly monitor the CPU temperature, and if necessary override CnQ and force the processor to momentarily slow down at times of high demand, whenever it gets too hot and perilously approaches its maximum operating temperature, above which it may be physically and permanently damaged.

I was unlucky to get a processor that tends to overheat (the model is not to blame, individual units of any processor model may behave like that, for largely imponderable reasons and minute manufacturing differences). It may easily reach AMD's specified limit for an Athlon 64 (about 71°C/160°F) when running CPU-intensive tasks: performing a video conversion, encrypting a large file, testing a compressed archive, or even with occasional bursts of higher activity from Windows' own tasks. And living in a subtropical area where air conditioning is mostly unaffordable to an average Joe like me doesn't help, so I'm always fighting CPU overheating here.

Anyway, we're digressing from the main subject and problem, which is how to auto-start a program that needs administrative privileges when logging on to a standard account, without getting an annoying UAC prompt every time. (Remember that NextSensor is just the most critical of such applications in my case, but there would be a separate UAC prompt for each of them.)

Thanks a lot, however, for the effort, including the screen capture. That didn't go unnoticed!