Author Topic: DONE: Faster boots combining hibernate and restart (Boot Snooze) (Read 172199 times)

snark_be · « **Reply #125 on:** March 01, 2010, 10:43 AM »

havent read this myself so not sure how relevant it is, but just in case:-
Great step-by-step tutorial on setting up a pc to auto fill in password for use with BootSnooze at Windows Guides:
http://mintywhite.co...pc-smart-30-startup/
-mouser (February 13, 2010, 08:44 AM)
-tomos (March 01, 2010, 08:59 AM)

Nice but it requires the setting "Users must enter a user name and password to use this computer " to be switched off all the time.
I only want it to be disabled when I do a restart with Boot Snooze. After it ran, or when I do a regular reboot, I want the computer to ask for a password. I also set my PC to ask for a password when coming out of sleep or hibernate.

mouser · « **Reply #126 on:** March 01, 2010, 11:27 AM »

I only want it to be disabled when I do a restart with Boot Snooze. After it ran, or when I do a regular reboot, I want the computer to ask for a password. I also set my PC to ask for a password when coming out of sleep or hibernate.

now this is getting interesting and clever.. disable the requirement to need a login or specify a password when it does the reboot, then restore the login prompts/password request before the hibernate/sleep. nice idea.

snark_be · « **Reply #127 on:** March 02, 2010, 04:19 PM »

Thanks

.

I'm ready to add this feature myself, but I'd have preferred not to reinvent the wheel and use the existing source code as a base

.

mouser · « **Reply #128 on:** March 02, 2010, 06:40 PM »

we love to see teamwork on dc.. maybe you guys can collaborate.

skwire · « **Reply #129 on:** March 04, 2010, 05:09 AM »

Sure, I'm happy to collaborate. I just didn't want to release the source publicly.

snark_be · « **Reply #130 on:** March 04, 2010, 05:53 AM »

So how do we proceed?

a) you code the feature yourself, shouldn't take you very long, I guess.
b) you send me the code, I (try to) code the feature, and share the exe back here
c) any other way you see fit...

skwire · « **Reply #131 on:** March 04, 2010, 06:13 AM »

I'll contact you via PM.

nudone · « **Reply #132 on:** March 04, 2010, 06:45 AM »

after the collaboration, will there be two versions of BootSnooze available? just wondering how the password login version will be available.

skwire · « **Reply #133 on:** March 04, 2010, 06:54 AM »

My intent would be to add it in as an option.

nudone · « **Reply #134 on:** March 04, 2010, 06:59 AM »

My intent would be to add it in as an option.
-skwire (March 04, 2010, 06:54 AM)

ah right, thanks.

skwire · « **Reply #135 on:** March 05, 2010, 04:59 AM »

After a conversation with snark_be (thanks!) and, after doing some tests, it's easier to enable/disable auto-login than I initially thought so I've changed my mind about adding it. Here's some thoughts on this:

1) Add username and password fields to the Boot Snooze form with a checkbox for enabling auto-login.

2) If enabled, the requisite registry entries will be set just before shutdown. DefaultUserName, DefaultPassword and AutoAdminLogon are the keys involved. DefaultUserName is almost always already in place.

3) If enabled and upon rebooting, Boot Snooze will remove the DefaultPassword and AutoAdminLogon registry entries. In other words, Boot Snooze will minimise the amount of time that a box is in AutoLogon-able state.

4) I don't think Boot Snooze should save the username and password (even encrypted) in the config.ini file. Yes, that does mean the user will have to enter it each time. I'm open to discussion on this.

Thoughts, everybody?

mouser · « **Reply #136 on:** March 05, 2010, 08:40 AM »

4) I don't think Boot Snooze should save the username and password (even encrypted) in the config.ini file. Yes, that does mean the user will have to enter it each time. I'm open to discussion on this.

what i thought was being proposed, which would be much more elegant if possible, but i'm not sure it is,
would be to set a flag saying no password is needed to login temporarily, without needing to know the users password, and then re-enabling it if it was previously enabled.

in other words, if it would be at all possible to keep BootSnooze completely out of the business of needing a password at any point, it should be done.

snark_be · « **Reply #137 on:** March 05, 2010, 11:28 AM »

mouser, I'm pretty sure it cannot be done. The password is most certainly stored very well and not reachable by any tool to change. That would be a serious security hole: you ghet infected by a virus, it changes your password and you're locked out of your own account. Even if you could remove the password, I'm not sure it could be put back after the boot as simply as that.

Setting up Autologon is, I think, the only solution but I'll be more than happy to be proven wrong

.

JavaJones · « **Reply #138 on:** March 05, 2010, 08:58 PM »

It's actually super easy to remove the password, or at least it used to be under XP and possibly Vista. There was a boot disc to do it though, so maybe it's not so easy from within Windows. Not sure about restoring it though...

- Oshyan

snark_be · « **Reply #139 on:** March 06, 2010, 11:55 AM »

It's actually super easy to remove the password, or at least it used to be under XP and possibly Vista. There was a boot disc to do it though, so maybe it's not so easy from within Windows. Not sure about restoring it though...
-JavaJones (March 05, 2010, 08:58 PM)

Possible with a boot disk for floppy, running a light Linux and tools that hacks the registry while it's not being used by a running Windows.

hgondalf · « **Reply #140 on:** March 10, 2010, 08:27 PM »

Mouser, thank you for the program; nonetheless it is absolutely useless (for me) as is. Here’s what I normally do (without boot snooze).

Press Windows, then U, then H. (I then walk away and forget it.) Or, to shutdown completely, Win, U, S. Or, to restart, Win, U, R.

What I want to do using bootsnooze:
Press Windows, U. The Logout screen appears.
Press Z (or some other hotkey): The boot snooze operation begins, and I can walk away and forget it.

None of this having to wait for the login screen, logging in, THEN selecting Hibernate. Heck, I can do the same thing much faster from the keyboard! (Type Win, U, R, then wait for the login screen; then click Turn Off, followed by H. Don’t even need to log in.)

hgondalf · « **Reply #141 on:** March 18, 2010, 01:32 PM »

Thoughts, everybody?

See reply #140. I'm still wondering what all the fuss is about; boot snooze can not work for me; why do I have to log in, just to see the boot snooze window? Faster to press Windows, U, H and be done with it.

snark_be · « **Reply #142 on:** March 18, 2010, 01:53 PM »

Mouser, thank you for the program; nonetheless it is absolutely useless (for me) as is.
-hgondalf (March 10, 2010, 08:27 PM)

Useless ... for you. For a lot of people, Boot Snooze is interesting because, when you wake up the computer from sleep or hibernation, you are immediately at your desktop.

Your requirement is different and would probably need a service to start at boot and that will manage the sleep/hybernation.

snark_be · « **Reply #143 on:** March 18, 2010, 01:56 PM »

I'm still wondering what all the fuss is about; boot snooze can not work for me;
-hgondalf (March 18, 2010, 01:32 PM)

Again, Boot Snooze was not written especially for you!

skwire · « **Reply #144 on:** March 18, 2010, 02:02 PM »

Apologies for the delay in adding the auto-login functionality. I need to find a few minutes to add that in.

skwire · « **Reply #145 on:** March 18, 2010, 09:43 PM »

If anybody is up for it, please give this test build a try. It includes the auto-login feature.

http://skwire.dcmemb...ooze/BootSnooze_.zip

If auto-login is already enabled on your computer, this build won't offer anything new. As I mentioned above the changes/logic are as follows:

1) Username and password fields have been added to Boot Snooze's main form with a checkbox for enabling auto-login.

2) If enabled, the requisite registry entries will be set just before shutdown. DefaultUserName, DefaultPassword and AutoAdminLogon are the keys involved. DefaultUserName is almost always already in place.

3) If enabled and after the reboot, Boot Snooze will immediately remove the DefaultPassword and AutoAdminLogon registry entries. In other words, Boot Snooze will minimise the amount of time that a box is in AutoLogon-able state.

4) Boot Snooze does not save the username and password (even encrypted) in the config.ini file. Yes, that does mean the user will have to enter it each time. I'm open to discussion on this.

Command line support for this new option will come later. If this works well for you testers, I'll promote it to the next release.

DONE: Faster boots combining hibernate and restart (Boot Snooze)

snark_be · « **Reply #146 on:** March 18, 2010, 11:44 PM »

skwire, I tested it but auto-login did not work

. I'm running Windows 7 Ultimate 64-bits, maybe that's the cause (other registry keys?).
And when enabling auto-login in Boot Snooze, the username is not set to the current user by default.

mouser · « **Reply #147 on:** March 19, 2010, 04:43 AM »

worked on winxp

skwire · « **Reply #148 on:** March 19, 2010, 08:24 AM »

skwire, I tested it but auto-login did not work . I'm running Windows 7 Ultimate 64-bits, maybe that's the cause (other registry keys?).
And when enabling auto-login in Boot Snooze, the username is not set to the current user by default.

-snark_be (March 18, 2010, 11:44 PM)

worked on winxp
-mouser (March 19, 2010, 04:43 AM)

Like mouser mentioned, it works on XP for me. I don't have any Win7 systems with which to test on, unfortunately.

Lachlan · « **Reply #149 on:** March 30, 2010, 06:20 AM »

Wouldn't it be easier to simply set the option to ask for a password when the PC comes out of standby (or hibernation)?
It's an inbuilt Windows function in the screensaver tab:

(Although it says "standby", it also applies to hibernation as well)

I know from experience that you can have autologon set, and Windows will still ask for a password when exiting standby or hibernation (with this option selected, obviously).
This wouldn't be very effective if someone just turned off the computer normally, next time it turned on it wouldn't ask for a password.

So the user would BootSnooze the PC, the PC restarts, automatically logs in, enters standby or hibernation, then when the PC is woken, it asks for a password.

This way BootSnooze would stay completely out of the realm of passwords and therefore make a lot more people comfortable with using it.
(I don't like the thought of entering my logon details into a third-party program)

One more thing, as I mentioned above, I use the autologon function, does BootSnooze check whether this setting was previously enabled before it removes it's autologon entry? I wouldn't like to re-enable autologon every time I BootSnooze.