t.s.lim

Very funny! I just come across this discussion (in the last reply message): http://www.howtofixc...vel-272499.html Ha! A free script program AutoIt (http://www.autoitscr...om/site/autoit/) can do so easily and yet my paid ME Pro can't. Sarcastic enough!

... why ? .... Because I love to do so. So what? Ha! (1 time)

Let me reply for this kind of reminder once and for all: I understand there is a toilet in my house that I can comfortably shxt there, however I reserve my right to shxt in a public toilet (so that more people get the smell). Again, thanks whoever trying to remind me for the above matter. You are free to keep on the bullshxt to kill this forum, when this forum is die, so as the product.

I use a macro: (activated when multimedia player programs are closed) Audio Mute Audio Volume: Turn On Full Repeat Start (Repeat 10 times) Audio Volume: Move Down End Repeat Audio Unmute To restore system master volume upon the closing of few media players that I normally use to play video or musics. MEP also has similar functions to control "MIDI" but it does not have any function to control "WAV". Many multimedia players in the market (this include media player classic) actually change the "WAV" volume, so please add those WAV functions, so that I can have something like: Audio Mute WAV Volume: Turn On Full Repeat Start (Repeat 10 times) WAV Volume: Move Down End Repeat Audio Unmute

Hi Cory, Thanks for you input. For what I want to achieve (as in the very first post of this thread), In fact I am currently using a macro similar to what you have suggested. MEP really have to improve its scheduling features to make it more flexible (and thus covers more cases). FYI, I am among those few that keep pressing Insight since ME3 (backtrace to year 2002) for the ability to schedule a macro run once and only once but not at a particular point of time which ends up as the MEP's "If the activation was missed, run at the next available time" feature. I strongly believe my suggestion on how to enhance the MEP schedule feature in the other thread, if implemented will make MEP much more powerful.

Common sense tells, if my goal is to bash MEP, I won't be so stupid to register MEP in the first place. Base on my personal experience, a "Suggestion" forum (I wonder why there isn't one here) is always the best place to quickly find out how rich/lack of a utility features (particularly when one need to evaluate and choose one among several competitive products). And how well the response of the author (or a representative from the developer) to user suggestions is a good indicator of how much they care about user needs (which I think is the major factor determining the future of a product). I often find it mush more interesting to read discussion in user suggestion forum than a bug report forum.

That link never says I shouldn't post suggestion here. I hereby, would like to invit any moderator to clarify this point: Can I, as a registered user of MEP post my request of new feature here instead of using that link. Btw, I have never come across such a hostile forum where user can openly demands others to stop suggesting something simply because it is not his interest, wtfk!

Hi, How do you know? In my example, I want to run a monthly schedule macro only when my system is idle. (The AND case). The trick you have suggested won't work and even if it work, I think creating 3 macros to schedule a single task is not the answer, that way is unnecessarily troublesome, inefficient and unwise. Just point me to the place where the forum rule says I should not make any feature request here and I will shut up and leave.

Hi, How about allowing multiple "Schedule" activation of a macro? I mean something like I can schedule my macro to run 1. Monthly and/or 2. When the system has been idle for x minutes (i.e. if it is a AND, I can have a monthly macro to run only when my system is idle, the possibility is unlimited... and hence flexible) I wish MEP to be more flexible with its time-scheduling features and the easiest way I can see is to allow multiple time-schedules (those that currently provided by MEP) whose condition are joined with a Boolean "AND" or "OR".

I think I do. My definition is simpler, anything I plan to do at certain time is considered being scheduled. In fact I am aware that a bit is set in boot sector to summon chkdsk when Windows bootup simply because Norton Ghost prompt me about that (bit 446) while I attempt to create a backup image of my HDD. My wrong assumption is "what" launch the chkdsk program (after detecting the marked bit), I assume it is Windows Scheduler and I was wrong! Don't blamed me, I have been bombard with the "power" of Windows Scheduler all this while... If you read again my previous post, you should notice 2 things: 1. I am aware of bad sectors (start to develop) on my WinXP HDD before I scheduled a chkdsk /r 2. I don't expect chkdsk to clear the bad sectors for me (since that is impossible), I only want it to reallocate as much good data from the bad sector area to healthy spots on that HDD. From 2. you should see that, sometime, the purpose of running chkdsk could mean to cut down losses instead of cure a storage problem absolutely. If you agree with me on this point, then you should agree also, if chkdsk /r always fails with the same cause then blindly repeating it is simply UNWISE. Just imagine if MEP is being used to launch chkdsk /r, it is easy to code such that it won't foolishly repeat the launch indefinitrly, right? The same thing can't be done (and is currently NOT done) by Windows Scheduler. Hence, generally spesking, MEP is better than Windows Scheduler in launching anything. The claim that the latter is more powerful could not be TRUE,

I admit I have assumed it is a Window Schedule that fires up chkdsk /r and I have not searched on-line for the fact what indeed was going on behind that. But isn't it funny that when I boot WinXP up under safe mode and issue a "schtasks /delete *" command, it stops the blue screen (as mentioned in my previous post) and I can boot normally into Windows from there on? Btw, thanks for the link to explain how chkdsk is scheduled... again I presume MS couldn't be wrong in explaining how their products work. .. um... to be fair, that link really supports what I have claimed, even MS thenselve can't scheduled chkdsk with Window Scheduler, so it is not that POWERFUL.

Speaking of Windows Scheduler, I would like to share with you my recent experience of its power... My Windows XP HDD has started to develop "bad sector" just few days ago. I am lucky that I have 3 logical drives on that HDD and bad sector has not developed in C: drive where my Windows XP resites (that is why I can still boot up my Windows) I actually confirm on its problem when I try to create an image backup using Norton Ghost (and I was warned about bad sector) that immediately explains to me why one of my Steam game keep having corrupted game files and required me to reload. My plan is to brute-force a backup using Norton Ghost's -FRO -SURE switches then restore the my Windows XP to a new replacement.HDD. But before that I try to chkdsk /r on the logical drive where my Steam game resites (I hope it will reallocate as much as possible, data from the bad sector area before I backup). Almost as it always will, I was prompted to schedule the check because Chkdsk needs absolute access right while doing its task, I answer 'Yes' (so scheduled the HDD chkdsk... see what happen next) Upon rebooting my WinXP, I notice my HDD indicator blinking intensively (chkdsk is working hard to find and reallocate bad sector data, I know it), and then wtfck, I got a blue screen with error: "c000021a unknow Hard error". i.e. chkdsk /r has triggered a blue screen ... the funny thing is, if I reboot my PC after seeing the blue screen, the same event sequence repeats (reboot-> Chkdsk/r -> blue screen), My Goodness...I now can't even boot up my WinXP because Windows has scheduled to complete chkdsk/r on its next boot up, but that task can never be completed without triggering a blue screen in the mid. So, now what? Why me? $^$*638^%&$^#^ ... Since I am posting in this forum again, as of this writing, sure, I have the above solved. But "how I solved the above" is not my intention of this message. My point is why can't Window scheduler just switch off the chkdsk /r task after it fails to complete in its very first try? Window scheduler is not that POWERFUL, right?

Strictly speaking, I don't consider what you have mentioned as "powerful" scheduling ability. It is just a matter of what a "window service" can do while an ordinary window program can NOT. MEP is a window program which runs only after Windows is up running as usual, you can't expect it to do anything for you while it is not even running... It is just like, you can't claim that a magic wizard is more powerful than an ordinary doctor for a doctor can't ressurect a dead. (he can't because that is not in his job scope) Just for your info, Windows service, including your most admired Windows scheduler required a login (otherwise it forfeits Windows security requirement), though you can make the login implicit (in a layman term an auto or unattended login). There is, for example, backup program that uses a service to login (MS Server 2008) and carry out backup job event before any user has login. (But you have to specify a user name and password to let it run under the user account). If your Win7's scheduler really let something occurs even without needing anyone to login, don't be happy yet, think about security,,, think it hard, do you really want that?

That can be true if you are comparing it to just MEP's activation Schedule feature. If you consider the codes in a macro of MEP, then I don't see anything else (besides your turn on sleeping computer) that can be done by Window Scheduler but a MEP macro. What I am requesting is to make MEP's activation Schedule feature richer in its options, make it even better than general scheduler program (including Window's native scheduler), that shall save repeated scheduling codes in macros.

But Windows' bult-in scheduler can't set any condition which is not time/date related, right? Since I am running MEP all the time, I don't find it a good idea to run more than one scheduler programs...

Thanks for the guideline. I somehow feel that there is still very big room for improvement in Macro Express's schedule feature. Use your guideline as example, the first two 'If'' are suppose to be in the 'Activation' portion of a macro, there should be a single 'if' (i.e. condition) checking - against the file date in codes. If MEP provides pick Sunday ... Saturday of a week, why not add also, pick 1-24 hours of a day and pick Jan - Dec of a year? If MEP can provide Run a macro from time X to time Y in a day, why not include also, from day X to day Y of a week and from month X to month Y of a year. All these shall save a lot of coding if one has quite a number of scheduled macro that required any of them.

Sorry, that should be March not May. The macro should run for the first 7 days at 9.00 pm provided the mentioned file is absent or its date is not current. I mean it runs "indefinitely". if I die, I won't be able to know whether it is still running, I assume no one will use (thus switch ON my PC), so, that macro should stop indefinitely by then.

I am using Windows Xp. I never t let my PC goes hibernate nor standby, I normally shut down my PC before I go to sleep, however, sometime I will keep it running for a few days.

Hi, Literally, in a non-MEP context, I wish, I will be reminded by my wife every semi-annually to backup my HDD drives starting from the coming September this year. I might be lazy or could be busy by the time I am reminded by her, however I can be sure if she keep reminding me every evening (say at 9.00 P.M.) .I will have that backup done within a week. Unfortunately my wife is as forgetful as I am and I don't think she has the stamina to keep reminding me on the same thing sharply at 9.00 P.M. for 7 days. So, I hope MEP can come to help... I want to create this macro once and for all... but I am lack of idea how to actually schedule my macro in the most efficient way. 1) I want MEP to pop me a reminder to backup my HDD drives (I will do that with Disk Image utility). -> this part I have no problem to do it myself. 2) I want the reminder to appear every day but only in the month of March and September at 9.00 PM for their first 7 days (i.e. day 1 to day 7 of these 2 months) 3) The reminder stops for the month being, as soon as I change a file 'HDD BACKUP.RMD' on my C: drive such that the year and month of its date match the date as in 2) and it then waits to remind me again 6 months later. 4) This macro repeats until I die. So, how do I schedule the above ? What is the best way to minimize the MEP checks on whether it needs to remind me?

I have it tried. It is quite buggy (not due to conversion problem)... sigh!

If MEP installation always converts the deault macro file of my ME3, that means, I can't unload MEP, reload and run ME3 during my trial period (because now the macro file is in new format). I want to be able to switch to using either of them when trying MEP, can I? I don't have complex macro. My reason of using ME3 (and hopefully, in the near future MEP) beside its main capability of automate certain task with macro: 1. I also use it as a scheduler for other programs. I dislike Window's native scheduler which is not flexible enough. I also find it hard to maintain the scheduling of some of my utilities (with built-in scheduler). I want a center scheduler to schedule everybody. (MEP has interesting improvement in this area which I like) 2. I also want a center keyboard hotkey manager, instead of letting utilities compete to react to hotkeys. 3. ME is a good program to serve as a password manager, one which feed password correctly, no matter how different the password input interfaces are (among utilities that are protected by password). In brief, it replaces the role of few utilities (which otherwise I will have to install and maintain). and I am runnung winXP... again, let me ask this: Is MEP memory hogging after using it over hours under XP? Does MEP slow down WinXP a lot compare to ME3?

I understand that there will be a conversion of ME3 macros if I install MEP for a trial and the conversion is irreversible... Is the installation of MEP converts my ME3 macro file directly (making it no more ME3 format) or does it produce new MEP macro file base on the existing ME3 macro file ? In brief, I want to be able to go back to ME3 easily, just in case... Btw, can I try MEP in VMWare, will it work?

Hi, I am running WinXP and ME ver3. I am impressed by what MEP can do compare to ME when flipping through its on-line help file, so is keen to upgrade to this PRO version. However, few posts here scares me, it looks like some of you found MEP so buggy and the extend of the MEP bugs is intolerable under Windows of Vista based engine (that includes Win7) May I seek your opinion, since I am still stick with WinXP, should I upgrade... I mean are those bugs merely Window Vista/7 related? 1. My ME ver3 is stably consume about 11732K memory no matter how long I leave it running, I won't want to upgrade if MEP eat up more and more resources after running for a while, (sort of memory leak problem) 2. I also don't want to upgrade if MEP causes a performance impact which is much heavier than ME Is there anyone running WinXP find MEP OK?

Hi, I have captured snapshot of my problem and I have attached it in my bug report. Please kindly let me know the result. For years, this is the first time ME is causing me problem and I really need to run that particular macro quite frequently. t.s.lim

I will try to capture screenshot... not easy though because when the problem occurs, the whole system is like being fully occupied by unknown source, which I dare not claim is ME but strongly suspect it is. By the way, something worth mentioned, I have taskbar set to autohide, the system tray icon for netwrok connection notification is set to motify me when it is connected. i.e. the connection icon will not be in the tray until I get connected. May ne you can try the same way as I do, just set the system the way I have set then put a display text dialog immediately after the if dial-up connection xxxx command and see how.