Click to See Complete Forum and Search --> : Run F@H on Windoze computers at school


Stupid Boy
01-20-2006, 09:30 PM
I wanted to run F@H on Windoze computers at school without having to go through the computer administrators. I'll talk to them if I can't get it working effectively, but I at least want to find a way to do it without their permission.

The School uses Novell and Windoze XP. It's sort of maybe kind of not really thinking about switching to SuSE with Novell. Here ideas and why they don't work:

Setting F@H up as a service - This worked last year because an old image because had no administrator password, but it doesn't work on the new image.

Setting it as a scheduled task to run upon login - I had could create the task, but I was told at the end of the wizard that I didn't have permission to enable it (Not the exact word Windoze used).


The rest involve the Startup directory. This is less desirable because it would only allow folding when a user is logged on. Still, it's better than nothing.

Putting the F@H executable in the Startup directory - People will close the window, and the various files created (MyFolding.html, etc.) get run too.

Putting the following vbscript in the Startup directory:Dim objShell
Set objShell = CreateObject("Wscript.Shell")
objShell.Run "..\..\..\svchost.exe",0,True
Set objShell = Nothing(I renamed the F@H executable to "svchost.exe" in case people check the task list.)
This is supposed to run the program in the background, but for some reason it only works when I manually run it; it does not work when it is automatically run at startup. I tried using C:\Documents and Settings\Student\svchost.exe as well, but that didn't work at all. This would be the best thing I think out of all the things here if someone could get it working.

Creating a link to the F@H executable, setting it to run minimized and putting it in the Startup directory - This is what I'm trying now. I doubt it will work; even though it's minimized, people will close it simply because it's there.

The last idea is simply to leave my account on with F@H running. That would only be one CPU though...

Does anyone have any ideas?

JayMan8081
01-20-2006, 11:50 PM
Don't run FAH on computers you don't have permission to run it on.

dkeav
01-21-2006, 12:00 AM
doing something like that without the permission of the admins, which eventually will notice is grounds for expulsion in a lot of places, you might want to re-think your idea a little

write up a reason, a howto, and even offer to help them do it and try to sway them, before you try to subvert them

je_fro
01-21-2006, 01:02 AM
You've really earned your user_name with this post...as hungry for machines as I am for our FAH team, I'd never condone unauthorized use of school cycles. You should uninstall and THEN ask permission. Perhaps once they see it's for a GREAT cause and can be highly educational, they'll go for it.

mrrangerman43
01-21-2006, 08:04 AM
It's never right to do wrong even if the reason is honorable.

[edit] I would question your motives, is it to help F@H or to see if you can get one over on addmin?

retsaw
01-21-2006, 08:11 AM
Read the license for FAH (http://vsp27.stanford.edu/license.txt).Restrictions:

You may use this software on a computer system only if you
own the system or have the permission of the owner.
So like others have said, ask permission and if you get it the administrators could install it as a service themselves. Not doing this is in violation of the FAH license.

bwkaz
01-21-2006, 09:55 AM
Besides, people have done this before (several years ago, in Georgia: see http://news.com.com/2100-1023-270939.html for instance). The school district eventually found out, and they charged him for the CPU time that he used without permission.

Whether the district had a leg to stand on or not, it was still Not A Good Thing for anyone involved -- least of all the DC project that he installed on these machines.

And you don't want to end up paying your school district "hundreds of thousands of dollars" if they get it into their heads to do the same thing to you, now, do you?

Stupid Boy
01-21-2006, 10:37 AM
Okay, I'll ask them.

But I'd still like to know how to do run something in the background at login without administrator access on Windoze.

mrrangerman43
01-21-2006, 11:16 AM
motive made clear.

Icarus
01-21-2006, 01:36 PM
1. This is not a Windows forum, ask on a Windows site

2. Spelling Windows wrong does not make this a valid post on a Linux forum

3. Do not tamper with public/private/government owned (not yours) without proper permission, this is considered illegal

4. Consider this topic finished as we do not condone this type of behavior here