keeping a process alive

[silverfish51]

Hi,

We're having a problem keeping a process for a program alive.

I work in a school where we run an RM CC3 network (supposedly a student proof Windows XP Pro). We use RMTutor2, a re-branded NetOp, to both monitor what the students are doing and to use it to allow teachers to give class demonstrations on things like Excel from their workstation.

The problem is that the students have found a way of killing the RMTutor2 client process by initiating a false shutdown. Then they usually hit ask jeeves picture search...

RMTutor2 has two parts which run from startup, RMLogonMon.exe (the client) and nhostsvc.exe (netop helper). Only nhostsvc.exe is listed in services.msc and only that part stays alive after a false shutdown. RMLogonMon.exe isn't listed in services.msc, and this is the one we need to keep alive. Is there any way of doing this at all?

[Sterling_Aug]

Expel the students that kill the program and eventually the other students will get the idea to NOT kill the program to stay out of trouble with their parents.

There is no "perfect" lockdown app for Windows. Someone will always find a way around it.

[silverfish51]

Unfortunately management doesn't take any kind of line when it comes to disciplining students for misuse of school computers.

We caught a handful of them trying to hack the system and all management did was to revoke their computer privileges for a couple of weeks.

[BipolarBill]

Well, if the powers that be are not going to discipline the students for violations of policy, why bother having any sort of "nanny" program? Heck they could just walk out with a whole PC. This is more of a policy issue than an application problem.

I do know that Win2K Pro and XP Pro allow you to remove the shutdown option. You can also configure the Power Options (Advanced) so that the power button won't shut down the PC. The trouble is that the PCs will either have to be left on or an Administrator must manually log on and then shut down each PC at the end of the day.

[silverfish51]

I think my boss would have a fit if he had to log on to every machine to power it off every night.

A school network is different from a corporate network. In a school you have your entire user base randomly clicking on everything in sight and attempting to break things because they can.

We find no end of things stuffed into the floppy drives and power supplies.



Are there any third party executables that can be configured to detect that a process has stopped and re-start it?

In services.msc you can configure the listed services to restart if they are stopped, but the client process for RMTutor2 isn't listed there.

[BipolarBill]

Why don't you contact the program vendor instead of poking around in the dark on online forums? You're not likely to find specific program help here. Sorry.

[silverfish51]

We already did, but they can't find a solution to the problem. I figured a shot in the dark is better than no shot at all.

I do have one idea though... The students are doing a false shutdown by opening Word, typing anything, logging off or telling the machine to shut down.

Partway through the shutdown Word asks if you want to save your work. They hit cancel and it stops the shutdown process.. after it has shutdown half the running processes.

Is there a way of forcing a shutdown after a student has requested it, forcing Word to close no matter what?

[garybeafl]

When I went to a night school on repairing computers at a local high school they had a program called "deep freeze" and no matter what the student did the computer could be put back in the original condition by the teacher.

[silverfish51]

Thanks, I'll look into that one.