Not that that this seems to be a problem to me as such, but I'm just wondering ...

When I boot my machine I get a normal sequence of messages in the BOINC Manager messages window - eg.

2006-03-25 02:29:46 [---] Starting BOINC client version 5.2.13 for windows_intelx86
2006-03-25 02:29:46 [---] libcurl/7.14.0 OpenSSL/0.9.8 zlib/1.2.3
2006-03-25 02:29:46 [---] Data directory: C:\\Program Files\\BOINC
2006-03-25 02:29:46 [---] Processor: 1 AuthenticAMD AMD Athlon(tm) XP 2800+
2006-03-25 02:29:46 [---] Memory: 511.36 MB physical, 1.22 GB virtual
2006-03-25 02:29:46 [---] Disk: 127.99 GB total, 38.97 GB free
2006-03-25 02:29:47 [---] Version change detected (4.19.0 -> 5.2.13); running CPU benchmarks
2006-03-25 02:29:47 [climateprediction.net] Computer ID: 76412; location: ; project prefs: default
2006-03-25 02:29:47 [---] General prefs: from climateprediction.net (last modified 2006-02-28 23:37:37)
2006-03-25 02:29:47 [---] General prefs: using your defaults
2006-03-25 02:29:52 [---] Remote control not allowed; using loopback address
2006-03-25 02:29:54 [---] Running CPU benchmarks
2006-03-25 02:30:53 [---] Benchmark results:
2006-03-25 02:30:53 [---] Number of CPUs: 1
2006-03-25 02:30:53 [---] 1841 double precision MIPS (Whetstone) per CPU
2006-03-25 02:30:53 [---] 3216 integer MIPS (Dhrystone) per CPU
2006-03-25 02:30:53 [---] Finished CPU benchmarks
2006-03-25 02:30:54 [---] Resuming computation and network activity

When I look in the file stdoutdae.txt in the BOINC directory, those messages are preceded by:

To pause/resume tasks hit CTRL-C, to exit hit CTRL-BREAK
BOINC Core Client Error Message
Failed to initialize the BOINC Idle Detection Interface
BOINC will not be able to determine if the user is idle or not...

Any idea what this is about?

... Is it connected with the detection of the 'do/don't do work when computer is in use' user preference? If so, is it a problem if people were to select not to do work when computer is in use?

---

Not that that this seems to be a problem to me as such, but I'm just wondering ...

When I boot my machine I get a normal sequence of messages in the BOINC Manager messages window - eg.

2006-03-25 02:29:46 [---] Starting BOINC client version 5.2.13 for windows_intelx86
[....snipped....]
2006-03-25 02:30:54 [---] Resuming computation and network activity

When I look in the file stdoutdae.txt in the BOINC directory, those messages are preceded by:

To pause/resume tasks hit CTRL-C, to exit hit CTRL-BREAK
BOINC Core Client Error Message
Failed to initialize the BOINC Idle Detection Interface
BOINC will not be able to determine if the user is idle or not...

Any idea what this is about?

... Is it connected with the detection of the 'do/don't do work when computer is in use' user preference? If so, is it a problem if people were to select not to do work when computer is in use?

I think you could be right. Although I'm pretty sure the Idle Detection still worked for me on 5.2.13. There was such bug found in the 5.3.xx line.

You can check also Windows - User is active ? and User is Always Active?.

Peter