Currently we are testing spark for our environment and I find that many users on a terminal server do not stay logged in. Is there a script or something anyone has that I can use to start spark.exe (or another process) in certain users’ sessions without their intervention?
a scheduled task would do the trick. Spark will not launch multiple copies for each user so set the task to run every X minutes. If the task is created by an admin they can not delete it or stop it. Also set the preferences for spark to start in try that way it will start silently. You may need to run a login script to overwrite their preferences.
-
I’ve noticed that spark.exe will run as many times as I try to run it. Only one window will appear, but spark.exe will show up multiple times in Task Manager.
-
Are scheduled tasks a user setting? i.e. If I login to the terminal server as Administrator and create a scheduled task, will that task be there for all users?
I have created scheduled tasks that run under all users, such as one to force computers to restart every day at 5 AM.
Additionally I just tested my spark and it only shows once in task manager regardless of how many times I double click it.
I think if I could figure out the scheduled task it would work, but spark being able to spawn multiple processes makes that problematic…So basically what I need is a scheduled task that can run under each user on a terminal server that runs a script that does this:
If spark.exe is not running then run spark…
I’m interested in doing the same thing, but I also get multiple Spark instances (see attached pic) when I try it. I’m using the latest version of Spark.
I may see what I can accomplish with a logon script of some sort. If I find anything or come up with anything useful I’ll post it.
I can not duplicate that issue with my copy of spark but I am running it on XP not server 200X. Maybe this is a bug with running it on a server OS.
I’m running XP as well, I’m just using the Zune theme. I tested this out on 3 other machines in our office and got the same results. Since it doesn’t appear to be a definite bug, I’m curious to know how many other Spark users, if any, are having this issue.
I cant duplicate that either. Only one instance of Spark.
I almost hate asking this but did you use the MSI or exe installer was the jre included?
I have the spark msi and the jre msi being deployed by group policies…And I see the same thing, spark.exe can run as many times as I bother to double-click…
Same here. I’m using the MSI package with JRE and I’m pushing it out silently.
Can you try downloading and installing the spark exe installer with jre?
That fixed it for me. I did a complete uninstall and then reinstalled Spark using the exe with JRE package.
So how do we use group policies to deploy that one? Probably not possible right? There are too many computer in too many places for me to have to install this manually. Why release an msi if it sucks so bad?
all very valid quetions. I used the exe and a product called Emco MSI Package Builder to make my own custom msi file. It included custome registry entries for SSO, custom graphics for Spark to make match our corp brand,etc.
Perhaps beyond the scope of this discussion, but why would the msi installer behave different in regards to multiple processes than the exe? Would they let you post an msi without any of those additional features, just the exe built as an msi for those of us that need to deploy via GP, but need the ‘features’ of the exe?
Well. Seems that msi was always a pain for developers to maintain. We’ll see if that changes when WinSrev releases his 2.6.0 version (and msi version probably).
Is there a timeline for that? I have not seen anything mentioned in the forums…
I was running a second or third beta of 2.6 until this morning. I am back to 2.5.8 as there were some issues with the beta I had.