WOW thank you sooooo much Robotask and GAOTD for this invaluable software that is, magically, just another software that makes my computing experience much more simple and much more fun! I am very grateful for this FREE FREE FREE software being given away today. You may of noticed that I emphasized the word 'FREE' for a GOOD REASON.... it is for all you haters and cheap skates that CONTINUOUSLY complain about prices. IT IS FREE TODAY PEOPLE.....F R E E. free. So what are all the complaints about the price about?? Why are you complaining about the price of the program when you get the HIGHLY USEFUL and fun software today for F R E E.??? Seriously, you don't have to pay for it today. So I cannot understand why you all are STILL complaining about the price. And if you think that the price is simply too out of control and not fair for people that do have to pay for it then please listen carefully: Not ALL companies and manufacturers that supply us with the highly USEFUL softwares are giant & multi-million (maybe billion...) companies that can afford to give away programs, like this one, for free (or even at a lower cost). These companies (that you people keep complaining about) are SELLING their services and products to profit. This is called BUSINESS. Do you complainers not understand the way business works?? Obviously not. I fully believe, with all of my heart, that if the makers of software (that you all complain about continuously) could lower the price(s) while making profit at the same time.... THAT THEY WOULD. But, people, they have to eat, too!! Why do you think everything in this world should be free or at a cheaper price??? Why do you think that YOU are so important that you should get everything at a ridiculously low price??? Come one people, stop being so darn greedy. What if people complained about your work and said that it should be free?? WOULD YOU GIVE PEOPLE YOUR SERVICES AND PRODUCTS FOR FREE ALL THE TIME?? I didn't think so. There is something called respect. I think some of you should learn what respect means. After you learn what respect means, then you should comment. But not until after you learn what respect is... and the NATURE OF BUSINESS.

#56 Try this link for some options: http://www.robotask.com/support/

Another tip: After installing the program on your computer, If you go to the RoboTask folder in "all Programs" on Start menu you will see a number of additional items and services related to ROBOTASK. One item is link to the Help file. It WORKS!! HELP opens immediately. Maybe we can write a RoboTask script to open HELP FILE while we are using the program? That maybe my first project...... THANKS TO EVERYONE GAOTD, NEOWISE and useful comments and thoughtful critics.

Important installation notice: My experience may help anyone that is still having problems getting the full licensed version to install. My first attempt to installed resulted in an "evaluation" install even though I ran the activate.exe first. What I didn't do was click on "extract all files" choice for the activate.exe file instead I clicked on "run". After finding out I had evaluation installed, I went back to my original GAOTD download; clicked on the the activate.exe file; clicked on the "extract all files" which put 2 new files in the folder: activate.exe and activate.gcd. This time I clicked on activate.exe and the GAOTD validation screen appeared. After it closed I clicked on the setup file and reinstalled program without uninstalling the first attempt. This time it activated correctly and the 'About" menu shows a full GAOTD personal license. I did immediately go into "check for updates" menu and changed setting to manual as suggested above. Everything seems to be working fine. Too bad that the GAOTD team didn't write a robotask script to install this thing so all we had to do was hit on a Function key. But then where would be the challenge?

I wonder the high price of this software... coz, the build-in task manager in windows can do the same job as far as I know about, so $119.95 for this kind of software is something like shooting yourself in the right and left foot !
Btw. the user guide have 239 pages, so when you think about this programs features then can you risk to use even more time with your head stuck in the user guide, instead of saving time and "clicks" on the mouse !!!

A $119.95 software need a much better GUI and simple steps to use, so YOU are in control of the software and not the other way around !

I had the same problem over activation that #22 and #47 reported. The solution was to close the Robotask (as per #1 message), and then extract the activate.exe and activate.gcd files to a folder (I used the desktop for convenience) then run activate.exe from that location, NOT from within winzip, winrar, or in my case PowerArchiver (a recent GAOTD installation, which incidentally can carry out the installation automatically without going through the extraction process).I hope that helps.

Complete 240 page User Manual at the downloads on product website. But I agree that it is frustrating using a program that has a broken Help file .

I, too, got RoboTask v4 when GAOTD offered it a while back. I've created a couple dozen jobs that execute as often as every 5 minutes to once a week. There is a lot of functionality that you can't do with batch files, and is harder to do in PowerShell.

I'll mention that the CheckForUpdates.exe program that comes with the product threw an exception in v4 each time it ran; I upgraded primarily to get rid of that problem, but it still exists in v5.

I don't know how to use this. "Macro Recorder", given away here not long ago was much easier to use.

Earlier giveaway for reference:

http://www.giveawayoftheday.com/robotask-4-4/

I downloaded, activated and installed robotask.

What now?

There are no instructions and I can click Help, unfortunately without any effect. Only now I remember that I tried to get this or similar program running some time ago, but invain. Maybe again? I will click on its buttons and see what it eventually will do, but maybe this play will get boring after a while...?

Reply to Tony #31

Thanks... works great, hibernate is a great compromise...

"My Intellimouse doesn’t work after installing Robotask. Cannot move the jumping cursor. When I don’t allow a Rototask autostart, the mouse works well.
Is there anybody who can help me?

Comment by aLex — O"

aLex, That isn't happening on my Win7 64 bit machine, but if I were you, I would check to see if there are any shortcuts enabled by other programs which might conflict, especially the mouse software.
Just a guess!

The whole idea of using a computer is to be easy to do things.
However, if you have to spend hour and days trying to program few simple tasks, it defeats the purpose of having such software.

The best way such automation will work, if it is user friendly, like with drag and drop, assign time or priorities and tell it the time from and to and or if certain conditions are satisfied. Anything else, makes the software not user friendly and is a turn off for many average computer users.

Don't forget to go into Help; Check for updates; and then, at the bottom, in the drop down list box under autochecking, select Manual Only

Why not just write a batch file and schedule it. Both things easy to do in XP or WIn 7 and entirely free. :)

Hi Alrock
There is no software that can start your computer for you unless you use a magic packet to wake the computer and this is being phased out, the only thing you can do it put the computer to sleep and then do a scheduled task to wake the computer.

Could I do basically the same thing with Task Scheduler, which is already on my Windows machine?

I have used Robotask since the last Give away. It is excellent but dont accept any automatic upgrades offered as the previous freebe required a paid for licence to continue using it.


I use it to copy key files/ folders into Dropbox and Skydrive after every update.

Tried to install several times (uninstall in between).

All it would do is give me a "demo" version!
And yes, I ran the Activate.exe first.

Mike

Somebody mentioned

EventGhost
AutoIt
AutoHotKey

but there is also Powerpro. You run powerpro as a background process and it can do everything these other programs can do, has lots of other "robo" features; I've been using it for years. It is totally free - it can do absolutely *anything*. It has a GUI that will do hotkeys, window operations, shutdown, restart, it has timers, *create custom toolbars!!!* and you can write your own scripts. However, you cannot compile the scripts - Powerpro is its own runtime. This is absolutely awesome; the only forum is a Yahoo Groups forum, however, but the developer (a 60 year old guy who used to work on tape drives) is very active there.
http://powerpro.cresadu.com/xdownload.shtml

There is also a program called Precision Builder which was designed for the automation of development tasks. This is a very nice, powerful program. This is free for personal use; otherwise it is $29 euro.
http://www.be-precision.com/products/precision-builder/express/

> this one says “Free updates up to 10/9/2012. 2012
This is logical
Read on the top of the page:
Please note that the software you download and install during the Giveaway period comes with the following important limitations:
1) No free technical support;
2) No free upgrades to future versions;
3) Strictly personal usage.

My Intellimouse doesn't work after installing Robotask. Cannot move the jumping cursor. When I don't allow a Rototask autostart, the mouse works well.
Is there anybody who can help me?

@ alrock... WakeUpOnStandby (WOSB) can be found here: http://dennisbabkin.com/wosb/ to wakeup your computer from sleep/standby mode. Generally speaking, if your computer is properly configured, Off state uses 3kw (ghost) power, standby uses 5kw power, hibernate uses ~100kw power, and idle/on uses ~150kw power. So, as you can see... standby is only about $3 dollars per year more in electricity (forget the actually price per kw/hour, but do remember yearly estimate). Also, standby is faster to bootup, remembers last positions were you were, and can be automatically (via WOSB) woken up. NEGATIVE: loses info in case of power failure. WOSB should work not only with standby mode, but with "hybrid" mode as well I think.

I have the same issue as @22: Ran activate then ran setup. Got the demo notice, clicked register, got a registration confirmation and started over as indicated. If I repeat the cycle, same thing, ad infinitum. My System: Windows 7 Professional (64-bit) Version 6.1.7601 Service Pack 1
Intel(R) Core(TM) 2 Quad CPU Q8300@ 2.50GHz (2493 MHz) 4030 GB RAM
PowerSpec 628

Will try a reboot to see if it improves, then I'll uninstall and start over.

I just want to give an update here.
The down-votes on this software today indicates they vote against something that is designed for them to make their computer environment more efficient. Sometimes I think

On that notion, I give all of you down-voters the Idiot's Award in Gold with a double layer coating of Irridium and an ice-cream gratis on top of that. The irony is obvious, I hope.

Thanks GOTD and RoboTask
great software for those who know the value of it

good day all of you...

I replaced the last free giveaway, now this one says "Free updates up to 10/9/2012. 2012?!

#3 (Alrock) Go into you BIOS when you boot up. There should be settings to autostart by time-of-day, power fail and wake-on-LAN.

In the computer world it only makes sense to create intelligent autonomous systems. To what Robo Task can do, it is going the right direction. What I miss in the software is artificial intelligence for learning tasks and optimization of swarms via controlled neural networks. At the moment Robo Task can have 96 linked machines per node. That's not bad for a start. But again, it needs advanced neural networks to control the hive because every machine reacts with variations, that is to say, all computers do not react the same way as the host computer. Once that is implemented, Robo Task is up to something big.

Interesting software indeed. I think, however, Robo Task would benefit from a better development environment if the project would be Open Source.

Reply to Alrock #3,19 and others:
Gigalarm is what you should try. It can wake up your PC from hibernation at your preset time, and do many more wonderful things Robotask claims to do. The cost is $12.49 USD. It is worth the price. BTW, I am not a paid promoter of the software! :-)

Have got version 4.4 of this software from previous GOTD.
I haven't had a chance to explore it properly.
It does seem good, if somewhat expensive.
I notice that the company generously offered free updates until May, 2012.

@23 Eric
I was looking for the 'Changelog', to see if today's giveaway is worth downloading, so thanks for the link. There do seem to be more than a handful of new features.

Mike, Fubar, and Ashraf don't seem to be appearing here with any notable frequency. I don't think 'MikeR' is 'Mike-the-video-specialist', as it were. The three of them were able to provide different perspectives, all of which were pertinent to different needs.

I'd like to express my appreciation of Giovanni's posts. He often finds unknown 'gems'. I know this from my own researches. He has been accused of being a 'copy & paste' merchant. This is unfair. One can't always find novelties that are unknown to the informed, And what about the uninformed? Are they to be ignored?
I think Giovanni's posts are a helpful resource, if anyone wants to nitpick, they should do better.

I've never used the software 'ratings' system, but the controversies over it are entertaining.

Reply to Alrock. If you want something to turn on your PC at a specified time, check your PC's BIOS to see if if has Power Up option in its settings, not all BIOS have it.

For those not familiar with this program, Robotask has been around for some time and is very well known in the macro/automation software category. It does have some learning curve, because it is especially geared to "power users." If you are not technically inclined, this may not be ideal for you. However, if you will take the time to learn it, and are technically minded, it is a solid program. And, you cannot beat the huge savings today. I'd give this one pretty good marks.

52% THUMBS UP only? Come on...this is an amazing program every geek should have in his arsenal.

If you don't need it, please don't give it a THUMBS DOWN...just skip rating it or everything here is going to the dogs.

With this tool you can do whatever task a PC can do without lift a finger though...great app for those like me who are eager to find a way to increase their productivity on a daily basis.

Some of these tasks are general actions everybody can do such as, running other programs, opening or printing documents, shutting down all running programs and/or your PC.

But this magic tool can also automatically perform more sophisticated tasks for you like sync folders, packing and unpacking archives, checking for and sending e-mail, executing HTTP downloads, and ping your hosts. Best part of it is the ability, given to users, to set up highly complex automation tasks, involving conditional IF/ELSE statements and custom variables.

And it's a pretty much highly customizable app since it enables users to stop and/or edit all their tasks and even save a shortcut to the task on their desktop.

So 3 huge THUMBS UP from me!


BEST FREEWARE ALTERNATIVES

* (Portable) Perfect Automation
http://www.perfectautomation.com/

* EventGhost
http://www.eventghost.org/docs/features.html

Screenshots:
http://www.softpedia.com/progScreenshots/EventGhost-Screenshot-128712.html

How to use it:
http://www.digitalfusionmag.com/blog/software/eventghost-the-little-automation-program-which-can-change-your-life

* Pretty Flow
http://delphistep.cis.si/prettyflow.htm

* TimeComX
http://www.bitdreamers.com/products/timecomx

* SCars
http://scars.securitycadets.com

See also:
http://www.raymond.cc/blog/make-your-computer-automatically-perform-tasks-for-you/

Enjoy!!

Installed and registered without problems on Win 7 64-bit.

RoboTask has a good rep afaik and looks decent. I can't get the hang of their scripting window though, GameMaker style where actions etc. are selected from lists and put in a treeview, tickboxes and all. May work for users not used to scripting but I find it annoying and slow to work with. Setting an alarm like this takes ages when compared to banging out the code in an editor.

And it's way overpriced. Seriously, with AutoIt as an alternative there's little to warrant such a high price.

I'm sticking with AutoIt, it can do everything RoboTask does and then some.

Thanks anyway GAOTD and Neowise Software

@Alrock #3 - For this purpose you will need a special router that has the capability of "Wake-On-LAN". Such a router can autostart a PC. Just google for infos.

@Peter Blaise #4 - Cheap is judging something that you don't even know and have tried, so pointless. A real programmer certainly does not need a GUI guided macro builder but uses programming language, so would not even comment on this..Also, if you even would have looked you would know that Robotask has an in depth error handling http://www.robotask.com/help/index.php?errorsprocessing.htm

Everyone else who moans about the $119 - You should work on your mentality "want it all without giving anything". Robotask can in no way be compared with those little macro recorders that record some mouse movements. It is a powerful automation software that can be used to create all kinds of complex tasks for everyday jobs and surely more for professional use of the PC (so, not really for the little guy who does not know more than surfing around, emailing and maybe a bit playing games).
Also, one cannot compare it with AutoIt or AutoHotKey because both are nothing for people who don't know about programming respectively have a huge learning curve.

For such a powerful program I find the price completely adequat.
I have tried nearly every kind of automation software and there is no freeware that really can compete with it. For my experience the very only nearly comparable software is Winautomation, which costs much more ($249 professional edition). I too own a licensed copy of Winautomation professional, where one of the main reasons for me to decide for it instad of Robotask is the fact, that Winautomation includes a compiler to create exe-files out of the macros. I am using it a lot. But love to play around with Robotask as well.
Sure it does have a learning curve, just like all programs that do more than just clicking around but are more for the professional. But its not complicated if you invest a little time.

For everyone who has a lot of time consuming repeating everyday stuff to do Robotask can be a great thing and is worth to be tried. I would recommend it and give it 5 stars and thanks to GAOT and Neowise software.

As a user for some time, my advice is that if you can't look at this and *immediately* say "wow, this is what I need", you don't need it and you shouldn't want it.

This offers far more than (most) any other program of its type and it's not really aimed at the casual user; which is why it's priced as it is. Those who need its power know that and those who don't know that probably don't need it and would be better off with a less complex alternative.

IMHO, this isn't really the place to offer this product since 99.9% who install it won't use it. Still, it's a good program so I wish them well.

BTW, not much has changed since v4.4 was offered here. Here's the link for what has changed.

http://www.robotask.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=1370&PN=1&FID=1&PR=3

I ran the installation and activate files. It said I had a demo version, so I ran activate again. I then got a message thanks for activating, restart which I did, only to find again it stated I was using a demo version.

@3 Alrock & @19 Alan36

Most PC's have an auto-on feature in the Bios. You can set the time each day you want the PC to turn on.

At #3 Alrock ... Depending on your computer ...It is possible to create wake alarms within the BIOS settings on start-up ... before your Windows OS boots in. The BIOS keeps an accurate time/date so as to maintain hardware, software settings, schedules and other time based events for efficiency.

If you're unsure how to access your BIOS settings (usually the DEL key or F2), but know how to configure the wake events and other various options ... simply call your local computer shop to give you some advice, but have your computer details ready.

@Alrock #3 If your computer is shut down, not running ... how can a piece of software (NOT running on it!) start it up?

There are various means of "waking-up" PCs that are 'sleeping': the most reliable IME is pressing the down-arrow key. But one can send wake-up signals over a network. Nothing can "autostart" a computer that is off though - I'd be interested to hear if there's a flaw in my reasoning.

It is a software for a niche market.
You have to be highly skilled and knowledgeable .AND. you must actually have a serious need to automate complex tasks.

You must be willing to slowly learn how to use it. Learning curve looks very steep.

I am unable to comment whether it is good or bad.
Probably it is good - provided you know what you are doing.

If you do not know what you are doing, don't fool around with this.
This has the ability to delete your Registry Keys besides many other complex tasks. So if you program it wrongly, your PC is toast.

Go to their website and read in detail their "Robotask - Lite versus Full Version".

Thought of just using the Lite freeware version instead, but that has no mouse recording capability. So that too, is out.

Think I will stick with the simpler Macro Scheduler software that was given/bundled free with a magazine that I purchased a long time ago.

You can check the What's New link for changes since the 4.4 giveaway. You can access the Help from the Start menu or via F1 as #12, Oleg, indicated; the Help menu is broken in the program. We have a crippled GOTD license. I'm sure that Giovanni will list an endless array of free automation tools. It comes down to features and learning curve. The price is in line with other Windows macro/automation tools. For me, I either want a very easy-to-use macro/automation utility, or I'd rather just use a more common programming language. RoboTask falls into the guided scripting category, but I find it very hard to use. Like some others, it doesn't generate readable scripts, you have to check various dialog boxes and tabs to find out what each line does. To me, that defeats the purpose. The only easy-to-use tool I've found is WinAutomation. It's not cheap, and although they might have had a home license at one time, not now. I like having Windows automation tools around, but to be honest, I never use them. Some people, however, have a great need for them. You run into all kinds of issues with macros which I've addressed before. Even if you start with a macro, substituting more direct approaches where possible is always recommended. I might have looked at RoboTask's macros in the past, but I'm not going to bother now as I have a licensed copy of WinAutomation, which has a very good macro facility and supports on-screen image searching, which I didn't notice in RoboTask.

#4, Peter Blaise, you always post comments without even looking at the offering. RoboTask has a log, it stops scripts on errors, and it has other error handling (which I don't like). The edition comparison table is simple and straightforward.

Programs like these can have steep learning curves if you want to use anything more than the basic features. For those who need this type of automation and are prepared to put some time into it, Autoit must be a strong contender. Just as powerful (possibly more so), still being developed, and always FREE, so you don't lose that investment in your time with an OS re-install.

www.autoitscript.com

A free sostware that sell for $120, this seem like a good deal! Look like a lot of posibilitys Thank, will try it

Robotask the first thing that strikes me this program cost $119.95 wich is a very professional price, however if you see their website, it looks like they haven't spend a penny on that. One of the poorest websites I have seen in years, seriously. Seen this I would never trust their software either. Therefor my only conclusion can be that this is program also must be abandonware, at least their website seems not to have changed in the past 15 years!

>But, when I click Help Topics nothing is displayed.

Press F1.
Or menu Start-> All Program-> RoboTask-> RoboTask Help

have been using the trial version of "Workspace Macro Pro-Automation Edition" for the last couple of weeks or so,

am very happy with it.

if I can't find a free alternative that works as well,

will pay the $40 they ask.

however this piece of crap is asking $119.95!

it is un-user friendly,

requires too much manual input for simple macro recording of a few simple steps on the desktop...

(steps Workspace Macro Pro does easily).

For $119.95 I don't expect to feel as if I am doing all the manual 'programming' tasks myself.

the information it asks re a "Move to object" task for example is ridiculous.

for $119.95 what exactly does this 'program' do?

no where near what Workspace Macro Pro does for 35% of the price!

I have version 4.4 from an earlier giveaway. This is not a program that I use everyday but it has been useful at times. The installation process is smooth and easy. There is an activate.exe included to register the program. Make sure you run this file first, then run the setup. I installed this version into the same folder as version 4.4. There was no problem and I now have version 5.3. You can go to the publisher's web site and download a 240 page PDF user manual plus they offer some other free programs. The link is...

http://www.robotask.com/downloads/

Thank you GAOTD and Neowise Software

The installation is executed and the program seems to work with the examples provided. But, when I click Help Topics nothing is displayed.
A program like this, can not be used without help.
It is perhaps a bug that can correct.
In advance thank you and congratulations for this wonderful program