I'd like PingPlotter to run automatically at each system restart and begin tracing. I've written a .BAT file with one line:

START "C:\Program Files\Ping Plotter\PingPlotter" "C:\Program Files\Ping Plotter\comcast.pp2" /TRACE:www.comcast.net

This starts PingPlotter, but it starts in Paused mode, and I must click the "Resume" button. I don't see any command qualifiers to have it automatically "Resume". Thanks for the help.

The /TRACE command is overloaded on the command line. If you specify a target name (e.g., www.comcast.net), then it assumes that you want to trace to that target and it "queues" that target name to be traced. The .pp2 file also has that target name, so it discards the duplicate. What you need to do is just specify the /TRACE with no target name, and everything should work. Try this:

START "C:\Program Files\Ping Plotter\PingPlotter" "C:\Program Files\Ping Plotter\comcast.pp2" /TRACE

Removing the :www.comcast.net should get things working the way you expect.

- Pete

Thanks for that suggestion. I gave that a try, but see that same problem. However, if I remove the START at the beginning, it works! the only problem then, it leave that Command Prompt window running. That's what using the START does, by spawning the command and exiting from the batch file.

Id like PingPlotter to start without leaving the batch job (Command Prompt) window running.

Ahhhh. That's an interesting behavior oddity in the START command.

The "Start" command's first parameter is actually a window title. So you're actually telling start to create a new window with the title "c:\program files...", and then you're launching the .pp2 file, which uses the association with PingPlotter to find PingPlotter and run it. The final parameter isn't used by the association, so it's discarded. That's just like double-clicking on a .pp2 file, it just loads.

So what you need to do is to stick in a dummy window title at the beginning, something like this:

START "PingPlotter Window Title" "C:\Program Files\Ping Plotter\PingPlotter" "C:\Program Files\Ping Plotter\comcast.pp2" /TRACE

The opening title can be an empty one too (i.e., ""), but I inserted the title there to make it easier to pick up.

- Pete

Nice job! Well done. That works perfectly. Thank you!