Screenshot while in locked mode on a Virtual host ( Hyper-V)

Technical support and scripting issues

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mmundorf
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Screenshot while in locked mode on a Virtual host ( Hyper-V)

Post by mmundorf » Mon May 14, 2012 3:09 pm

Guys & Girls,

Trying to figure out on how to be able to make a screnshot when the server is locked.
Login and run script doesn't seem to work either ( it does on physical machine , but not on a virtual server )

So before people get worried on the why to do so, here it is :-)

I take a screenshot of the screen, save it as a file and add it to a HTML file that people can monitor to check the status of the desktop.

It all works well IF, system is unlocked and is not minimized, if either of these 2 conditions are not met, I get an image of a black screen.

Any ideas ?

Mark

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Marcus Tettmar
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Post by Marcus Tettmar » Wed May 16, 2012 10:00 am

What do you want a screenshot of? A screenshot of a locked server can only be a screenshot of the login console. But I'm not sure why you'd want that (or how it is possible to capture). You mention the desktop - thing is THERE IS NO DESKTOP when the session is locked. There is nothing to capture. No windows. While processes may exist their windows and UIs simply cease to exist and the ONLY console available is the log in console. If you were to run a macro inside a locked workstation that used the ScreenCapture function you'll find you'll end up with a big black blob. There is nothing to capture.

This tries to explain the reality of how windows works in more technical terms:
http://www.mjtnet.com/msfaq171.htm
Marcus Tettmar
http://mjtnet.com/blog/ | http://twitter.com/marcustettmar

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mmundorf
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Posts: 5
Joined: Thu Jul 17, 2008 5:34 pm

What to capture

Post by mmundorf » Wed May 16, 2012 11:01 am

What is being screnshotted ( for lack of other terms ) is a html screen with active x and some other symposium components.

Problem is that due to restrictions on the end user laptops, no active x installed, some acceleretor software installed that can not handle the connection and hence can not display the data and the fact a login is needed that allows you to do a lot more than just view the data on the html page.

So what I did is install the html with the user logged in on a server, all runs well so no problem there, next step is to send that data ( screenshot ) to whoever needs it ( mail or another custom html that just displays the screenshot that is a jpg ).

On a physical system I could use auto login run script that takes screenshot, then lock the system again, in this case with the hyper-V virtual server that does not work :(

Thats in a bigger nutshell the whole story

Mark

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Marcus Tettmar
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Post by Marcus Tettmar » Wed May 16, 2012 11:07 am

Can't you use RDP to log in and set the user credentials in RDP and have your macro initiate the RDP connection so that it logs in automatically, then takes the screenshot.
Marcus Tettmar
http://mjtnet.com/blog/ | http://twitter.com/marcustettmar

Did you know we are now offering affordable monthly subscriptions for Macro Scheduler Standard?

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