Software: nnCron Lite

Many years ago, I used UNIX systems. While not particularly user-friendly at the time, there are some UNIX utilities that I have wished for. One of them was Cron.

Cron is a scheduler application for UNIX systems. It runs off of a simple configuration file, and has the ability to run items in a flexible manner. Like most UNIX programs of the time, though, it did not have a GUI, but if you read the help file, it was very doable.

Fast forward some years. I wanted to save power on my laptop, but at the same time, be able to reliably turn the power to an “always on” configuration in order to record a favorite show off the web. Windows scheduler worked up to a point: the point where I had turned the machine on within 30 minutes of the event that flipped the power. I found myself wishing for Cron. Luckily, I found it.

What Is nnCron Lite?

nnCron is a light-weight PC implementation of Cron. It can run as a service (which I do) or a stand-alone application.

Some of the features include:

• The ability to run missed tasks
• It can use environment variables
• It can use all the standard Cron features
• The service only takes 132K of memory while running

Who Makes nnCron Lite?

nnCron is made by nnSoft, a Romanian company. Their website is www.nncron.ru

Why Would I Use nnCron Lite?

nnCron Lite is appropriate if you like to schedule tasks on your machine but find that Windows scheduler does not have all the scheduling options you want. For me, the big one was the ability to run missed tasks.

Photo by LynGi