[W10/x64] AutoIt-Script will only access UNC-Path if I manually open the Taskmanager once

[Radiance]

Hi all,

I have an insanely obscure problem at work which I feel is maybe more of a Windows-Problem than an AutoIt one.
If this is the wrong forum, apologies, feel free to move my post.
I have absolutely no idea what's going on here and can't find any solutions to similar problems online.

I have a few Windows 10 x64 clients that need to run an AutoIt Script at startup with local Administrator privileges.
What the script basically does can be broken down to the following lines:

Global $CheckForFile = "\\myserver\myshare\somefile.txt"

While 1
    Sleep(2000)
    If FileExists($CheckForFile) Then _DoSomething()
WEnd

It waits for an file to appear at a given UNC-Path and does something if this is the case.
The script is a compiled .exe and gets started via the Windows Task Scheduler under the context of the default local admin user whenever he logs on.
The "Run with highest privileges" is also checked.

Now here's the really weird part:

Once the user logs on, the script starts and even the tray icon can be seen. But it doesn't do anything, even if the file exists already.
The script starts operating the second I manually start the Task Manager. For example like this, by right-clicking on the task-bar:

I don't even have to do anything else like switch to the Details-Tab and inspect the process or something.
Opening up Task-Manager and closing it is enough for the script to work flawlessly for the rest of the windows-session.

The script works correctly without this if I:

• ..manually start the script by right-clicking it and select "Run As Administrator"
• ..manually start the task from the windows task schedule
• ..run the task manager once (as above).

So, my current workaround is another AutoIt-script in the Windows startup folder of the admin user which does this:

ShellExecute("taskmgr.exe", "", "", "", @SW_MINIMIZE)
ProcessClose("taskmgr.exe")

Yeah, this works, but I don't like this solution very much because it makes me have two AutoIt scripts in different startup places.
The script in question doesn't generate any windows or message boxes at all.
None of the scripts contain a #RequireAdmin.

I really need some help here...  any ideas much appreciated!


Best regards,
Radiance

Edited July 22, 2019 by Radiance

[BrewManNH]

You should log where in your script it's hanging before opening task manager. Then log in your script where it's going after the task manager is opened, to see what is being triggered by opening the task manager. Put a file write after it jumps from one state to the next to see where this is happening.

[Radiance]

I don't know what to log.
The example above is only a slight variation of what I actually tried:

Global $CheckForFile = "\\myserver\myshare\somefile.txt"

While 1
    Sleep(2000)
    If FileExists($CheckForFile) Then FileDelete($CheckForFile)
WEnd

I swapped the pseudo func for a FileDelete().
This is the whole script which I actually have the exact same problem with. Path names are not the real ones for privacy reasons.

The file already exists beforehand and gets deleted once I start up the task manager.
FileExists on just the \\myserver\myshare also returns 0 as long as the taskmanager doesn't get started.

Edited July 22, 2019 by Radiance

[ModemJunki]

Curious - can you try to start->run->\\myserver\myshare instead of opening task manager?

I once had an issue where Intel NICs caused a problem with mapped connections, it was related to a setting in the NIC driver for "Wait for link". Only with Intel NICs, though.