AutoRestart keeps spawning new instances of browser

[Doug Payne]

Hi,

I'm using autorestart ver 1.0.0.6 with Windows XP, SP2.
I'm using it with Firefox. I use it to keep Firefox
running on our public pcs, so there is a uniform
look to our pcs, and so the students are presented with
a browser, and don't need to start it up themselves.

I also am using Deepfreeze Enterprise on the pcs.

The pcs are also under a somewhat restrictive Group Policy.

The pcs also have an automatic login set up, using the
standard registry keys, as described in Microsoft kb
page #315231.

Occasionally autorestart flips out and opens multiple
instances of Firefox. When I've seen this happen I've
always stopped it before it got past 50 or so instances
of Firefox, but I assume it would continue until it ran
out of memory. It seems to open a new instance every
second.

This happens sometimes when the pc is rebooted and the
generic "user" is automatically logged in. It may
also happen when a user closes Firefox, but I've never
seen this happen myself.

Has anyone else seen this happen? Any ideas how to
fix it?

Thanks,

-- Doug / Boston University

[Scott]

Try increasing the time to restart in AutoRestart. If the computer is bogged down when logging on or the application takes a little bit to start, AutoRestart may not be able to see the application is running when it checks to see if it needs to be restarted. The time to restart can add a buffer time to this.

Time To Restart:
Time span in milliseconds when AutoRestart will look for running applications.

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\TeamSoftware Solutions\AutoRestart]
"TimeToRestart"=dword:00001388

--Scott

[andyroo]

Hi there, I am having the same issue with Internet Explorer 8. I have set the time to restart to 5 seconds and it still happens intermittently.

When it does happen, even though time to restart is set to 5 seconds, it automatically launches a new window every second and goes to a maximum of 55 windows. I am wondering if it will always be a problem with IE8 as IE8 has an iexplore.exe process for each tab that is open, when we launch IE8 we are launching 3 tabs as the homepages and this preference is something that we do not wish to change.

I have tried upping the time to restart to 10 seconds and that seems to work, although as the problem is intermittent it may just be that I haven't tested it enough. Also, 10 seconds is not really ideal as users will probably just launch IE8 themselves while they are waiting.

Any suggestions?

Cheers

Andrew

[Scott]

Have you tried toggling the following setting in the Registry?

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\TeamSoftware Solutions\AutoRestart]
UseDifferential=1

This setting takes a before and after snap shot to determine the started process.

--Scott

[ekim]

Hello, I have the same problem, with AutoRestart v1.0.1.0 .
It is set as a shell.

I had tried all above solutions, and only AutoRestart parameter in registry makes any difference. With AR set to 10 sec, I get 3 to 4 PWBs. With 2 sec I get 8 - 10.

Is there anything else to look at?

Also, if you try to close the browser (when multiple instances running) it comes up with: "Failed to uninstall the keyboard hook."

[rephlex]

I also have the multiple instances issue with IE8 under Windows 7 Enterprise. This seems to be completely random but when it does happen, it takes no notice of the set delay times. Despite delays being set to 8 seconds, we've observed AutoRestart opening a new browser instance every 1-2 seconds, until there's more than 70 running. This can happen with no user interaction at all.

We've had this running with no problems at all under Windows XP for many years, but Windows 7 is completely unpredictable.

Please can someone help this is driving us insane

[rephlex]

Obviously, TeamSoftware Solutions have no interest in providing support for AutoRestart, so an alternative for anyone else trying to get it working with Windows 7 is RestartOnCrash.

Shame on you people.

[Scott]

Sorry, AutoRestart was developed to be used with Public Web Browser, not necessarily Internet Explorer. For faster support please email support@teamsoftwaresolutions.com.

Try adding the following to the Windows Registry.

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\TeamSoftware Solutions\AutoRestart]
"WaitForIdle"=dword:00000001

This setting tells AutoRestart to wait for the process to start before moving on. It will slow down AutoRestart but it should prevent spawning many applications.

--Scott