We had an old server running windows 2003 32 bit and Visual Cron to manage script execution. The scripts would open MINITAB, pass data to it, generate a graph, and then move the graph to a network location. This worked just fine as background execution using the RUN SCRIPT task type.

We create a new Server 2012 machine with updated VCRON. Attempting to do the exact same activity hangs on opening MINITAB with an error of: ActiveX component cannot create object mtb.application. If I reconfigure the job to run as foreground execution, or just run the script manually (no vcron), it works as planned. What extra steps may I be missing in this setup to ensure this will work as a background task? Any idea why I am getting an ActiveX error on Minitab instantiation only during background execution?

NOTE: Even with background execution, we use the same credentials/user that we log into the machine with or setup foreground. No user differences are present.

No progress on this at this point. Any ideas, please let me know. We are spinning our wheels on this one.

We've tried specifying both 32 and 64 bit build of cscript.exe and wscript.exe. Doing this had no effect.

We've tried reinstalling Minitab and even changing versions. This also had no effect.

Could this be something in the OS? If so, what? Why does foregound work flawlessly, while background execution through VCRON fails? Beating my head against the wall here and its beginning to hurt.

Perhaps you can test turn of UAC?

Or make sure you have checked Load profile in the Credential settings.

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UAC was indeed still enabled. I shut it off and it appeared like it would fix the issue, but the error just moved from instantiation line to the next line when we actually try to DO something with Minitab.

We were already using the "load profile" tick on the credential.

Still works fine if done manually or in the foreground via VCron. Background hangs and eventually dies.

You can also try turn on Extended debugging and then go to the Credential and select "CreateProcessAsUserW". Then try to run it.

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I enabled extended debug, but do not see the options that you specify in the credentials window. I have attached what I do see.

I see, you are using an older version then. I would recommend to upgrade.

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I was on 8.1

I'll upgrade to 8.2 and see what I get

I have upgraded to 8.2.0 and ensured that the aforementioned setting was selected in the credential settings.

Unfortunately, The behavior is the same.

What do the other boxes do? Suppress flow, Open Desktop, Override LT/LP, SeTcbPrivilege, and Duplicate Token? I currently have Suppress flow and OpenDesktop checked.

I have upgraded to 8.2.0 and ensured that the aforementioned setting was selected in the credential settings.

Unfortunately, The behavior is the same.

What do the other boxes do? Suppress flow, Open Desktop, Override LT/LP, SeTcbPrivilege, and Duplicate Token? I currently have Suppress flow and OpenDesktop checked.

They control detailed parts of execution. However, your problem is probably related to permissions specific to the exe you run. Normally, it is license issues or some environment or permissions details not shared between your environment and the VC environment.

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How do I allow the VC environment to access more things? I am already specifying an administrative user in the credentials.

How do I allow the VC environment to access more things? I am already specifying an administrative user in the credentials.

There are two things that control this:

1. permissions of user
2. if you use a Credential

These two should be enough to configure access for everything.

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As mentioned in the original post, the credential that we supply for the background job will execute the script manually or as a foreground task in VC just fine. Its only when we have VC try to run it as a background task that it fails. And all this works just fine on the old windows 2003 machine.