who knows a program that can monitor changes on screen

robin77 · 01 May 2010

hi, i am looking for a program that can monitor a small portion of the screen and trigger an alarm when something changes.

...for example: a program takes a few hours to do it's job. when it's done a icon on the screen will change. when this happens i want a alarm (sound) to be triggered.
my first idea was to look for a program which monitors a userspecified area of the screen (in this case the area with the icon) and goes off once a change is detected in this area...

does anyone know a program that can do this or does someone have a better idea? :)

not so gray matter · 01 May 2010

You're much better off using an a task scheduler which is triggered by an event rather than a visual change. Most of the time, when a task ends a log is created or the program exits, or whatever and you can tell a task scheduler to execute a script when this happens.

robin77 · 02 May 2010

thanks for your answer... but task scheduler is not an option in this case. the scenario that i used was an example. the only EVENT i have available IS the visual clue - there won't even be a notizable change in cpu usage.
but i'd be happy to use any kind of "dirty hack" if there is no clean solution available.... so do you have any idea how to trigger for example a task scheduler in a case like this? i was even thinking about creating screenshots of the area every 20seconds or so and compare the size.... but thought there's got to be a better solution ; )

WindowsStar · 02 May 2010

If this is an application that does something and then ends. You could monitor the application closing??? Without more information this could be a hard one to resolve.

Edit: Screen shots would be helpful, or what application you are using.

robin77 · 02 May 2010

thank you for the answer...

no, it's not closing or anything.... actually it's doing NOTHING besides changing the icon. if there would be anything else i could monitor i would have mentioned it already.
well.... to be absolutely precise, it actually IS of course doing something... otherwise the icon would not change... but all this happens deep under the hood ; )

Product FRED · 02 May 2010

You can use a guard dog.

robin77 · 03 May 2010

is this a joke or a piece of software i dont know? ; )

in case it's a software, do you have a link? i guess i won't get very far if i google "guard dog"

Product FRED · 03 May 2010

Joke

WindowsStar · 03 May 2010

Robin77 at this point I think the only way we will be able to help you is:

1) You tell us what the application is, name, etc.
2) What the application is doing, how it works, etc.
3) Screenshots of it in action.

Let us know.

mlevy · 04 May 2010

When the icon changes I'm assuming there's a change happening to the file itself, correct? If so, monitor that file for a change to the modified date (there has to be SOMETHING that can trigger off that) and sound your 'alarm'...