Here’s the deal: I get a lot of requests for the ability to run D7 Auto’s Maintenance routine with command line parameters for full automation and scripting usage. Likewise, I get requests for the same of dSupport, sort of a “corporate” version where a systems administrator can push out maintenance via group policy.
What it boils down to is that some people want to run these maintenance tasks from my apps with certain additional features that don’t already exist in D7 or dSupport:
- Ability to set up automation via Windows Task Scheduler
- Push out via Group Policy on networks
- Ability to run on a remote system and “let it go by itself” so the tech can just start it and then disconnect the session
- Email the tech on completion, with notes on what was run and if any errors were encountered.
- Reboot or Shutdown the PC on completion
- Ability to run invisible to the user
- Ability to brand with your company name / logo if not running invisible
After strongly considering adding command line functionality to D7 for this, I decided that D7 was far too bulky of an app to be run in such a manner. When I considered adding the functionality to a new “corp” style version of dSupport, I realized it was already too end-user oriented to repackage in such a way and much of dSupport would have to be gutted for the silent/automation aspect of it. So dMaintenance is born.
I am posting this here in the hopes that some of you D7 users would like to try it out and post your feedback and bug reports. I don’t want you to use this as a “new” product and don’t think it will currently offer you any functionality that D7 does not… The intention is that IF you normally use the D7 Auto routine on the Maintenance tab, to instead try out dMaintenance in it’s place. It would be very easy to add dMaintenance as a custom app inside D7 and just run that instead of D7 Auto mode.
For you early adopters, dMaintenance does rely on a few 3rd Party Tools for a few functions, like D7 – these tools can be setup in the same manner as D7 expects to find them. The real easy bit for an existing D7 user, is you can simply drop dMaintenance.exe into your D7 directory along with D7.exe and run it from there without having to worry about a separate 3rd Party Tools setup.
Similar to D7, this app will be FREE for all personal AND commercial/tech usage, including distributing/scheduling on your client’s PCs. The catch is, I will only ask for registration if you want to brand it with your company logo/name, or to run it completely silently without displaying any indication to the user that it is running; so currently these two features will not be available during the testing phase.
Anyway, if you’re feeling in an experimental mood, then this page on my website has the configuration details and download you seek.
If you’re afraid to try it out, by all means skip it until I can crank out a final version 1; but if you do try it, let me know what you think!
Leave a Reply