Schedule Spotify Good Morning Playlist–using AutoIt and Windows Task Scheduler image 42

Schedule Spotify Good Morning Playlist–using AutoIt and Windows Task Scheduler

I would like to have my Spotify playlist played to me every morning at 8AM sharp. Using the Windows Task Scheduler and an AutoIt script I can have the Spotify App started and subsequently automate the steps to run my preferred Spotify playlist. I can even wake my computer up in order to start executing the task. In this article I show you how to do this.

In my previous article I introduced AutoIt – what it is, how to install it and how to get going on Windows 10.

Write the AutoIt script for Running the Spotify App

AutoIt can perform desktop actions. Such as run a program. However, Spotify is not a normal program, it is an app from the Windows App Store. Running an app turns out to be little bit different from running a regular application. Fortunately, the forum provided help with this challenge. Here is what to do:

Press the Windows key together with R.

image

In the dialog box type shell:Appsfolder. Then press OK. If you do not see a menu bar for the folder with the option View, the first click on Organize and select Layout | Menu bar.

image

Then open the View menu and select Choose details:

image

Select the property AppUserModelId to be shown as well.

SNAGHTML344cdd51

The AppUserModelId is the identifier we need for the right App to be started from AutoIt.

image

Try to copy this identifier (I ended up using Copy and OCR to get the value pasted into my AutoIt script).

There are two ways to run a Windows App from AutoIt:

ShellExecute(‘shell:Appsfolder\’ & $spotifyAppId)

and:

Run(@ComSpec & ‘ /c start “” “shell:Appsfolder\’ & $spotifyAppId & ‘”‘, ”, @SW_HIDE)

(note: $spotifyAppId  is a local variable defined like this: Local $spotifyAppId =  “SpotifyAB.SpotifyMusic_zpdnekdrzrea0!Spotify”

The code required for opening the Spotify App, searching for a specific playlist and starting that playlist is now quite straightforward, using x,y positions for interacting with the controls search field and “play search result”:

image

imageThis animated gif shows what happens when this script is executed:

Schedule Spotify Good Morning Playlist–using AutoIt and Windows Task Scheduler autoit spotify

Create Task in Windows Task Scheduler

Now my AutoIt script to open the Spotify app and run my favorite playlist is done, I would like to create a scheduled task to run this script every morning. I use the Windows Task Scheduler app for this.

Press the Windows key and type Task:

image

Then open the Task Scheduler app:

image

Click on Create Basic Task. A wizard appears. Go through the steps – define a name, the time to run the task (every morning at 8:00 AM) and specify the type of task: run an application.

SNAGHTML34375c8e

In the final step, provide details for the application to run. In my case:

  • full path to the AutoIt executable : “C:\Program Files (x86)\AutoIt3\autoit3.exe”
  • full path to my au3 script that should be executed : “C:\temp\RunSpotify.au3”

image

Press Next and Press Finish:

image

The task is now created and scheduled for execution, every day at 8:00 AM.

image

Now wait for tomorrow, and find out if the morning working experience is enhanced.

Note: you can define additional conditions for the task to be executed. You can also define additional triggers – to run the task at multiple times during the day for example.image

Note the checkbox “Wake the computer to run this task”. I can even use my laptop as an alarm clock, waking me with soft, sweet music.

Additionally, settings can be made for retry and ending of tasks.

image

Finally, from the Action menu, the task can be executed on demand – whenever you need a dose of music. This of course amounts to the same thing as just running the AutoIt script or creating a desktop shortcut for this action and executing the shortcut. image

A logical next step would be to pass the name of the playlist as a parameter rather than hard coding it in the AutoIt script and then create multiple tasks for various playlists at various times during the day. Command line parameters are accessible in AutoIt scripts in the array $CmdLine[], for example $CmdLine[1] for the first (not zero based index) parameter.

image

 

Resources

Programmatically controlling Task Schedules from within AutoIt, using this library: https://www.autoitscript.com/wiki/TaskScheduler

AutoIt Forum thread on running Windows 10 Apps (rather than regular applications): https://www.autoitscript.com/forum/topic/187123-win10-run-windows-store-apps/

Schedule Windows to Sleep and Wake Automatically – https://www.groovypost.com/howto/schedule-wake-sleep-windows-automatically/#sleep (statement to put computer to sleep: Rundll32.exe Powrprof.dll,SetSuspendState Sleep)

Leave a Reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.