Home › projects › Word Documents Created from OE › Issues

Windows Background Process w/o Taskbar Entry

Thu, 2011-06-09 11:25 — NoblePursuits
Project:Word Documents Created from OE
Component:Code
Category:support request
Priority:normal
Assigned:Unassigned
Status:fixed
Description

Does anyone know a way to launch an OE session in the background on Windows (XP) without having it show on the Windows Taskbar? Looking to create a "silent" process that is run from the Windows Task Scheduler that runs frequently throughout the day, and don't want the "noise" for the user.


Comments

Comment viewing options

Select your preferred way to display the comments and click "Save settings" to activate your changes.
Thu, 2011-06-09 19:30 — jurjen
jurjen's picture

#1

Status:active» fixed

Yes, easier than you'd expect: when you create a Progress window using the Appbuilder, you can uncheck the "Show-in-Taskbar" property of the window.


Thu, 2011-06-09 22:05 — NoblePursuits

#2

Thanks, but I neglected to say that this background app has no UI, just a few log entries. Its purpose is to share information between two databases.


Thu, 2011-06-09 22:06 — NoblePursuits

#3

Now that I think about it, perhaps I missed your point. Are you saying just DON'T run it with the "-b", but develop and launch as a normal window-UI, but with the checkbox unchecked? I guess it would just be an empty window?


Fri, 2011-06-10 23:16 — jurjen
jurjen's picture

#4

Haha no I was not saying that :-) but you might try it anyway. I did not really think it through, just remembered the show-in-taskbar option and typed a quick reply.
I think that users wil say that an empty window is still annoying when it suddenly pops up, even more annoying than a taskbar button.
The MS-Windows rule is: every visible unparented window has a taskbar button.
So if you don't want a taskbar-button: don't have a window, or don't make it visible, or make sure that it is parented (which is a rather complicated trick, but the show-in-taskbar option does it for you).

If you can't make a hidden window then MAYBE you can still hide it by giving it a screen-coordinate outside of the visible desktop, or by setting the size 0 by 0 (although I expect that the ABL will "protect" you by not allowing that)

or keep the -b option and wonder why it makes a taskbar-button in the first place. A batch should not be visible, at all. I don't know much about -b but could it be possible that there is in the program that the process tries to display something, which forces that some kind of console window gets born?


Tue, 2011-06-14 15:09 — NoblePursuits

#5

Actually, I finally got it to work, by:

- taking off the "-b" from the OE session command line
- unchecking the "Show in Taskbar" checkbox on the main window
- checking the "Small Title" checkbox

Any other combination always generated a Windows Taskbar entry.

You can find more from checking the OE knowledgebase for keywords "small-title" and "taskbar".

Thanks again, though!