The Battery Alarm Does Not Run a Program with a Blank Password

A new security feature in Windows XP does not allow the use of a blank password when you configuring the Low Battery alarm or the Critical Battery alarm to run a program when the battery level drops to a predefined level that you set.

You can configure alarm actions, including running a program, on the Alarms tab in the Power Options tool in Control Panel. If you configure Windows to run a program when an alarm occurs, you must supply the user account and password with which the program will run. If you do not enter a password, the program does not run, although the alarm still sounds. This behavior occurs because the Power Options tools uses the Windows XP Task Scheduler tool to start the programs that you configure. If you do not supply a password, Windows XP reports the unsuccessful starting of the program with the following error message: You can see this error message by starting Scheduled Tasks. To start Scheduled Tasks, click Start, point to All Programs, point to Accessories, point to System Tools, and then click Scheduled Tasks.

To improve system security, any scheduled task that runs under the context of a local user account (a non-domain account) requires a password. If the local account does not have a password, you must create one for that account, and then reschedule the task to use that account name and password. To create a password for an account:

1. Click Start, and then click Control Panel.
2. Click User Accounts.
3. Click Create a Password.

Any valid password is acceptable, but you cannot use a blank password.