Bits that don't really fit anywhere else

Windows

Task Scheduler

A task configured to "run at system startup" must not have "do not save password" selected. If the option is selected, the task will fail to run at startup (but will work fine when manually run).

Office automation

Attempting to automate Excel from a Windows service running on Windows Server 2008 or newer may result in this error when opening files:

Microsoft Office Excel cannot access the file 'c:\temp\test.xls'. There are several possible reasons:

• The file name or path does not exist.
• The file is being used by another program.
• The workbook you are trying to save has the same name as a currently open workbook.

This is due to the profile being used by the service not containing a "Desktop" folder. To resolve this, create:

• 32-bit operating system
  • C:\Windows\System32\config\systemprofile\Desktop
• 64-bit operating system
  • C:\Windows\SysWOW64\config\systemprofile\Desktop

[Source: MSDN forum]