Win2K adv server network question

Hey all,

I was wondering if anyone can point me in the direction of how to have a few programs run on clients of a W2K adv. server network in the middle of the night when those programs need input from a user.

The clients are all w2k pro, and the programs I want to run are things like Ad-Aware, RegClean, and maybe a defrag once a month.

All of the proggies that I NEED to run (virus scans, definition updates, and domain security policy updates) have their own service install or run at log in. However, there are some other things I would like to automate to streamline my network.

So the problem is that proggies like Ad-Aware need a user to hit "Scan Now" and that wont work as a scheduled task.

Any ideas, links, or suggestions would be appreciated.

Wedo

Something like that, unless it has a specific command line option for startup with switches, would probably require some sort of macro to run. It's the only way I know of unless it can be run as a service or has it's own automated utility built in.

You can get Intel LANDesk Managment Suite to do this kinda stuff from the server, it allows you to configure your Clients (remote nodes) as if you were sitting at the terminal, you simply add log on to the client the tasks you want the client to run to Schedualed Tasks and the client will perform them, LANDesk also allows you to perform even if the client is in a power off state by using WOL (wake on LAN).

So your server will wake the clients at a set time the client will run the schedualed tasks (the program can be run locally or from an application stored on the server, like Ad-Aware), and you server will then shut the client down when they are finnished (the shut down is time based it doesnt know weather the client is finnished or not so leave enough time for the client to perform all tasks before your shutdown clients command runs)

Cool, thanks for the input guys. I will take a look at the Intel LanDesk and I have already started looking for the command switches for Ad-Aware to try to run it in some kind of batch file or scheduled task.

If I can get the appropriate switches, there's a start-up policy you can set in the Active Directory as well....

One of these will work (I hope)

Wedo