Macro Recording and Automating Windows with Macro Scheduler – Tips & News
I’ve just posted a tip to Scripts ‘n Tips showing a simple Bubble Sort subroutine. The example sorts a list of files returned by the GetFileList function. I hope it’s useful. Here it is.
Scoop: QuickButtons will be on Bits du Jour next Monday (20th November) with a one-day 50% discount! Less than $10!? We must be mad.
By Ashley Henry.
My name is Ashley Henry; I’m a Network Admin at Advent Capital Management, which is a hedge fund managing billions of dollars. We deal nationally as well as internationally. There are several reports and processes that need to run several times per day; most of which require several redundant manual inputs. There’s never enough time in the day to complete most of the tasks the various departments need to get done. The challenge was to quickly and accurately transfer and print the data from various reports and processes to our trade system and with little or no manual intervention.
I’ve been using Macro Scheduler for about four months, Prior to using Macro Scheduler we attempted to print and enter these orders manually. This was very time consuming and error prone. It also cost more man hours than necessary. Since the Traders and Operations group are often interrupted by other phone calls and tasks, they would sometimes forget which report to run or when to run them.
Before coming to Macro Scheduler my programming / macro skills were minimal. I’ve primarily worked on the networking side of things. Since I had minimal experience in programming I thought that Macro Scheduler would be difficult to use, but I was pleasantly surprised. Marcus has been extremely helpful with some of the scripts that I couldn’t figure out. I’ve made hundreds of support calls to other companies and NONE has come close to the support that I’ve received from MJT. Thus far, I’ve saved the company at least 10 man hours per week and there’s so much more automating that needs to be done… Good job to Marcus for the wonderful product that he has produced.
Update 26th April 2011: We are now able to offer our customers a discount on Comodo Code Signing certificates through our Partners K Software. For details and coupon code please log into the registered user area.
What is Code Signing?
In Windows XP when you download an executable file from the Internet the browser checks the file’s Authenticode signature. This verifies who the publisher is. You get a dialog asking if you wish to download software from this publisher. If there is no signature the warning is more severe and it says something like:
The publisher could not be verified. Are you sure you want to run this software? This file does not have a valid digital signature that verifies its publisher. You should only run software from publishers you trust.
In some cases you will also get a similar warning when running applications that haven’t been signed. Apps that have been signed are trusted more by the operating system. And Vista is even more fussy.
Code signing protects against tampering and impersonation. If a signed app is tampered with or modified in some way the signature becomes invalid and so the user will be warned when they try to run it.
How does it work?
A publisher applies for a digital certificate from a Certification Authority. Using the Microsoft Authenticode tools the publisher can sign their applications with their digital certificate. The signing tool basically makes a hash of the code and their private key and appends the signature to the end of the executable. If the code is later modified the signature will therefore be invalid as it is partially based on the application’s code itself.
Should I sign EXEs Compiled with Macro Scheduler?
If you distribute compiled macros to others, or let people download them from the web you should consider signing them. Users can then see who the publisher is and be sure that the file hasn’t been modified in any way, and will no longer see the unknown publisher warning presented by the web browser.
So how do I sign my EXEs?
First you need to obtain an Authenticode Certificate from one of the following Certification Authorities:
– Thawte
– Verisign
– Comodo
You also need the code signing tools. These come with the Microsoft Platform SDK and can be downloaded here:
Platform SDK Redistributable: CAPICOM
Once installed, launch SignTool.exe to sign your EXE. For command line options see: Sign Tool (SignTool.exe)
For more information about Authenticode and Code Signing see Authenticode Overviews and Tutorials on Microsoft.com
Someone emailed me a link to a page on a crack site which purported to offer a crack for the Macro Scheduler 8.1 evaluation version. So I fired up Windows 2000 in Virtual PC and downloaded the “crack”. It contained two executable files. I scanned them with AVG Antivirus. One of the files contained a trojan. Since I was running under a Virtual PC environment it was safe to try this “crack” out anyway (I can easily trash/recreate the Virtual environment and the host PC is protected). Well, as expected, all it did was make some changes to the system and install the trojan. It didn’t do anything to Macro Scheduler. Macro Scheduler wasn’t cracked at all, but the O/S is now potentially compromised. Proves my point about how dangerous cracks can be. More often than not they aren’t cracks at all. Just trojan horses, keyloggers or viruses. Do yourself a favour, don’t download software cracks! Instead, if your issue is one of cost, email the developer and explain what you need the software for. You never know, they might even offer you a discount.
I’ve been thinking about creating an area of the site for people to upload tools they’ve created with Macro Scheduler Pro to. It could be free tools and utilities, or even demo versions of commercial products you’ve created. It would be a great way to demonstrate some of the things Macro Scheduler can do, as well as give developers some extra exposure. If you write tools that you give away, or sell, with Macro Scheduler Pro, please let me know what you think of this idea. If there’s enough interest I’ll get to it!
Wow it’s been a busy few weeks since we announced the beta. But I’m pleased to say that pretty much all of the issues found so far have been minor UI tweaks. There have been no reported backwards compatible problems with running old scripts and the new functions and scripting features are working well. I’ve had some great feedback on the new code builder enhancements too. It seems they are going down well. The new code builder features really do seem to have made writing code easier for experienced users as well as newcomers, which is exactly what we wanted to achieve. It’s also good to see people making the most of the new image recognition functions.
Many thanks for all your feedback and assistance so far. The new manual is now at the printers and a proof should be on its way to us. So we’re now well on track for official release in January.
If you haven’t tried version 9.0 yet you can download the beta in the registered user download area. The current beta build is 033. Please report any issues at the beta forum. Oh, and if you’re holding off purchasing Macro Scheduler because you’re waiting for 9.0, there’s no need, because anyone purchasing now will get a free update to v9 in January.
Over here in the UK, climate change and the environment are finally well and truly on the agenda. Green issues get a mention in almost every TV evening news bulletin and our political leaders, gearing up for the next general election, are giving green policies great importance. But this time it appears to be more than just waffle and token gestures. The environment has become an every-day issue. Ordinary people really are worried about the effects of climate change and the government is beginning to realise the impact it will have on the economy. It’s not just an emotional issue any more. It is beginning to hit wallets.
So I was interested to read in this week’s Computer Weekly that Hillingdon Council, in London, have made an 82% power saving by moving legacy systems that were running on 40 servers onto three modern servers running VMWare. By virtualising 40 legacy servers into 3 they have cut power consumption down from 18,720 kVAs to a total of 3,450 kVAs. Nice work.
And last week 100% of IT professionals who took part in a survey by Computer Weekly agreed that it was important for IT to be environmentally friendly. But again, these environmental issues are also hitting firms in the wallet. According to technology analyst firm BroadGroup, power now accounts for 30% of datacentre operating costs!
What are you doing to save power? There are free versions of VMWare and Virtual PC available. So there’s no excuse not to be making the most of them. And don’t forget you can use Macro Scheduler to automatically shut down your PC each night!
The trouble with a Tablet PC is the lack of a keyboard. Ok, you can use the stylus, but some applications rely on awkward keystroke combinations which just aren’t readily available on a Tablet PC. There’s one particular website I often access with my Tablet PC which never seems to remember my password, and also seems to fox my browser so that it can’t remember it either. So I end up having to bring up the on screen keyboard and type out my email address and password. And I nearly always make a mistake. Well I did. Now I use QuickButtons on my Tablet.
QuickButtons lets you create Button Bars. You can add buttons and assign keyboard scripts to buttons. So I’ve created a button which when clicked will enter my username and password. I have my QuickButtons bar at the top of the screen and set to auto-hide – just like the Windows Taskbar does. So I just move my stylus up to the top and click on the button. Simple. Much easier than fiddling about with the hand-writing recogniser or on-screen keyboard. Buttons can also be set to run other applications. It’s particularly good in conjunction with Macro Scheduler. I have buttons which run Macro Scheduler macros.
So QuickButtons lets me reduce awkward keystrokes to single mouse clicks.
The software was originally written to help a young boy with Muscular Dystrophy. He struggled to use the keyboard, but with QuickButtons his parents were able to create large buttons which performed those keystrokes for him when he clicked on them with the mouse.
QuickButtons 1.6 is now available, with support for additional keys, new icons and updated appearance. You can download it here.
Wells Anderson posts:
“Image Recognition is a brilliant new feature in 9.0. It allows you to write macros that press buttons that are “invisible” or have unpredictable locations. For example, add-ins to MS Outlook and other MS Office applications may have no menu equivalents and cannot be found using PushButton or FindWindowWithText. Image Recognition lets you find buttons and other screen elements and then perform actions on them, such as mouse clicks.”
He then goes on to share a great tip on how to deal with different font smoothing options. Check it out.