System Uptime on Windows10

[ces1a]

I was looking for a way to find out how long my PC had been running a few weeks ago and had trouble finding something that satisfied my needs,  I found a Visual Basic Script that worked but found it too long. But searching trough AutoIt WINAPI help found that it really was as simple as the following little script.

#include <WinAPISys.au3>
#include <WinAPIMisc.au3>

Local $Uptime = _WinAPI_StrFromTimeInterval(_WinAPI_GetTickCount())
MsgBox(0, '', "PC Uptime ==> " & $UpTime)

Hope it helps...

[spudw2k]

Welcome ces1a,

That is a very quick and useful way to get the uptime, yes.  I hadn't come across that method before; however, reading the verbiage on the _GetTick function from the help file, this method will be unreliable if the machine is "up" for longer than ~48+ days.  The help article also suggests using probing the system uptime counter from performance data...another way I've not done (or seen). 

Sure, the likely hood of a Windows machine being online that long is pretty low (if it is patched monthly), but it might be worth while thinking about these limitations and consider how you would address those limitations if necessary.

An alternative approach, which I have seen and used, is to collect the system boot time and calculate the duration from "now".  Here's an old(er) link to some examples.  https://www.autoitscript.com/forum/topic/110300-system-uptime/#comment-774837

I'm not trying to critique too harshly...I just noticed this is your first post and wanted to expand your knowledge in case you weren't aware or didn't think about it.  Once again welcome.

 

edit: to be fair...I have not tested those examples on Win 10 or verified they work with the latest ver(s) of AutoIt.  I just wanted to provide some more code for you to check out.

Edited December 9, 2015 by spudw2k

[ces1a]

You are right about the limitations of the method but if you modify it as follows it works.

#include <WinAPISys.au3>
#include <WinAPIMisc.au3>

Local $Uptime = _WinAPI_StrFromTimeInterval(_WinAPI_GetTickCount64())
MsgBox(0, '', "PC Uptime ==> " & $UpTime)

 

The only difference is the line: 

   Local $Uptime = _WinAPI_StrFromTimeInterval(_WinAPI_GetTickCount())

Is changed to:

    Local $Uptime = _WinAPI_StrFromTimeInterval(_WinAPI_GetTickCount64())

Thanks for your input.

[DavidLago]

Good info here. Thanks!

[EmilyLove]

There is a really easy command for this.

In command prompt, type "net statistics workstation" and press enter. You will see "Statistics since <DatePCStarted> <TimePCStarted>" at the top which essentially tells you when you started your computer.

 

btw, you can just press windows key + r (run dialog) and type "cmd /k net statistics workstation" for the same effect. the /k flag tells cmd to remain open and accept new commands once the command is processed. Optionally, you can do "cmd /c pause | net statistics workstation" instead if you don't want cmd to accept new commands but still remain open. Note Pause must be first entry or it won't actually pause.

[ces1a]

Thanks for the info, BetaLeaf, but what I needed in my case is to run a program when my computer starts.

The program has to wait 3 minutes from the time the laptop started to run two programs so as not to slow Windows startup in any way.

Getting the System Uptime had to take place automatically.  This way when the computer has been running close to three minutes my script runs two of my other programs.

 

[BrewManNH]

Put a 3 minute delay at the start of the script you're running, that way no matter when it starts running the rest of the script won't do anything until 3 minutes later.