Geek to Live: Put your idle computer to work for you

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   Geek to Live: Put your idle computer to work for you

by Gina Trapani

You've heard of SETI@home, a screensaver that uses your idle computer's otherwise wasted CPU cycles to analyze telescope data in search of extraterrestrial life. SETI@home is an outstanding example of a distributed computing project using idle computer time to achieve a greater goal. But wouldn't you like to put your computer to work for you automatically while you're away from your desk?

You can. Using a simple program called RunSaver, automatically kick off tasks for your Windows computer to work on while you're away.

Why not Windows Task Scheduler?

Sure you can schedule tasks to run at specified times, but tasks set to run when the computer is idle:

• Don't require you leave your PC on all night
• Will never interrupt you in the middle of working on something else
• Better fit folks with varying daily work schedules
• Suit low priority processes that should happen whenever they can but never interrupt anything more important

What kind of work can your idle computer do?

Some examples of tasks your computer can complete while you're at lunch:

• Download the latest MP3's on del.icio.us or your favorite music blog using wget
• Backup your blog using wget
• Sync your files to another computer using rsync
• Delete all the files in your Downloads folder or junk folder older than two weeks with the hard drive janitor script
• Email yourself critical documents or simply back them up to a thumb or network drive

Or any combination of those. All you need to do is place all the commands into a single batch script (a file with the .bat extension) that can run whenever the screensaver kicks in. Here's how.

Set up RunSaver

1. Download RunSaver for Windows. (Written using Lifehacker favorite AutoHotkey!) and save it to C:\Windows\System32\
2. Create a batch file called idlework.bat, and enter the commands you want your computer to perform while you're away. For example, I sync my remind calendar files from my server to my local machine using rsync like this:
   

   rsync -az ginatrapani.org:/home/gina/docs/remind d:/data/gina/docs

   
   Your script can contain any number of working commands to get your job done.
3. Once you've got a working script, add a line to the end of the file which kicks off the screensaver itself. I happen to like the classic starfield 'saver, so I add the line:
   

   ssstars.scr /s
    Find other screensavers in the c:\windows\system32\ folder also with the .scr file extension.  
   Right-click on your Desktop and choose Properties.  From the Screensaver tab, choose "RunSaver" from the list of possible 'savers.  Then, click on the Settings button and choose your idlework.bat file, as shown.  (Click to enlarge.)
       
   Hit OK, and Apply, and from here on in when you step away from your computer?  Your idlework.bat script will kick off automatically. 
    
   How do you get your computer to be more productive while you're at lunch?  Let us know in the comments or to tips at lifehacker.com.
     
   Gina Trapani, the editor of Lifehacker, likes to squeeze every ounce of productivity out of her PC.  Her semi-weekly feature, Geek to Live, appears every Wednesday and Friday on Lifehacker.  Subscribe to the Geek to Live feed to get new installments in your newsreader.