Deployment Solution

I have a number of Jobs within Altiris DS that have pre-reqs that need to be manually completed by the deployment team before the job continues.
These are mainly due to sendkey bodges that i cannot work around. Because of this i need to notify whoever runs the job they need to logon and unlock the computer they are sending the task to

Is there anyway, either by throwing up a message box via VBS or within the console of prompting the user who runs the job. I have already looked at using VBS within the job to check if the machine is locked or not, however the only method i have found to do this is by checking if the screensaver is running. This isnt possible here as the screensaver isnt enabled

Any cunning plans?

I would focus more on returning a custom error message after checking for the condition. If the condition isn't met return something like 12345 and have the actual error tell the DS user what check failed. Can't your pre-reqs be handled automatically? I've yet to find one that can't be manipulated by registry keys or just re-packaging. You could also do send keys with AutoIT scripting.

The problem is getting the Custom Error message! I cannot get Altiris / script to detect if the machine is locked. Altiris has a condition to check if the machine is logged on but not if it is locked.

Thanks

Check for the screen saver process. 3/4 the way down:
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/scriptcenter/resources/qanda/nov04/hey1115.mspx

Assuming all the conditions are true for your environments' setttings, you can change the "If colItems.Count > 0" from echoing to WScript.Quit(2222) . Now just capture 2222 as a failure code with the explanation: "Screen saver is active, machine locked" or similar.

Brandon, didn't the OP say that there are no screensavers, so l don't see how your post applies in this case.

 

Yeah you are right. I didn't read very well. Why not just set a screensaver with a GPO? Otherwise repackage the app so a locked screen isn't a pre-req to the job. Run as a domain admin or something.