Automating Processes?

[badbass]

I am looking for ideas about how to automate things to help the less tech smart individuals. Make it easier for them to tunnel or connect to vpns on wifi. Any os. Other computer things too?

Edited September 8, 2012 by badbass

[bobbyb1980]

On Linux based OS's this is going to depend what exactly you want to do, you can have scripts that run at startup, every x minutes, etc. For VPN's you could look into adding a connect script into /etc/rc.local or /etc/init.d.

On Windows, check out the automated task scheduler, aka "the at command". If I remember correctly, when doing this on Windows it depends on the .exe you're running and whether or not it needs to interact with the desktop. IMO, a cleaner and more simple way to do this on Windows would be just to make a .exe that connects to a VPN, then put that .exe in the "All Users Startup Folder" and you wont have to worry about following any Windows coding norms. There are more fancy ways, like making it a system service or putting the address of the .exe into one of the many startup registry entries, but all of those require the .exe to be coded in a way which allows it to wait for other system signals from Windows, and IMO it can get complicated coding these processes because many of them wait in a loop. Startup folder might be your best bet for windows.