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Is this possible without having a process running continuously, listening for WM_QUERYENDSESSION or similar? (or worse still, loading a DLL into the Winlogon process)

(Also unacceptable: write a script / program that does what you want, then logs off, and require the user to only use this program to log off, rather than Start -> Log Off or various other normal methods)

It's easy on XP Pro with Group Policy but I don't think that works on XP Home even if you "install" the group policy editor.

avirk
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Hugh Allen
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2 Answers2

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I believe that this Stack Overflow question may be your best bet: https://stackoverflow.com/questions/324220/how-to-run-my-program-on-before-logout-on-windows-xp

This Techguy.org thread also goes into more options in more detail: http://forums.techguy.org/windows-xp/728218-solved-logoff-script-windows-xp.html

The basic approaches are to either use WMI to listen for or hook Win32_ComputerShutdownEvent or to have something running (possibly hidden) that Windows will send a shutdown message to, written in something that lets you trap the reason for closing.

Community
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fencepost
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  • But I specifically said I didn't want to keep a process running. – Hugh Allen May 18 '12 at 12:49
  • Well, I'm not sure if you can set up a hook that will launch an executable, but I doubt it. Since it seems that some variation of this is available in XP Pro and nobody's come up with an XP Home solution that doesn't require a process in the past 10+ years, it seems to me that your options include A) change OS or B) have something running. Expecting innovation for a sunsetted consumer product seems unpromising. – fencepost May 18 '12 at 18:04
  • I realize it's a difficult question. That's why I put a bounty on it :) – Hugh Allen May 18 '12 at 23:17
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The Windows Task Scheduler has a trigger "On disconnect from user session".

I don't remember if the feature was available on Windows XP home though. If not you might find a good event-log entry to trigger the task instead (some service stopping for example).

Louis Somers
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  • "On disconnect from user session" isn't even available on XP Pro. I'll investigate event triggers. – Hugh Allen May 23 '12 at 01:15
  • It was a good idea, but unfortunately eventtriggers.exe is not present on XP home, and doesn't work if you copy it across. – Hugh Allen May 25 '12 at 16:57
  • It's quite a hack, but you could try replacing C:\Windows\system32\shutdown.exe with your executable which will call the original in sequence with identical commandline... kind of tricky but I'm also scraping the bottom of "the hat of tricks" by now... – Louis Somers May 25 '12 at 22:58
  • Are you implying that all logoffs / shutdowns go via shutdown.exe? – Hugh Allen May 26 '12 at 16:40
  • I'm not 100% sure, I assume. (I know that's dangerous) But it would not surprise me (30K is not nothing) – Louis Somers May 26 '12 at 17:15
  • I checked it out. shutdown.exe is just a wrapper around the ExitWindowsEx function defined in User32.dll. shutdown.exe seems to be seldom used. Sorry for pointing to a dead end. – Louis Somers May 28 '12 at 08:31