Is there a way to launch an application, such as Transmission, every time the computer goes idle (instead of sleeping)?
How to automatically launch an application whenever the Mac goes idle
applescript
Related Question
- Disable Screen Sleep AppleScript
- How to stop the launch agent from repeatedly launching a given AppleScript
- How to bring an application to the front, no bouncing dock icons
- How To Have A Custom Action Located Within An Applescript.app, Execute Only On Every Fifth Launch Of The Application
- How to get an AppleScript application to automatically run at login
- How to use Applescript to type in a application
Best Answer
This is a very hard feat to accomplish, primarily because there is no specific definition of "Idle". The only programs I've seen to actually have idle features are Instant Messaging Clients and the recent Mac App Store releases of Growl. And those simply have a configurable time that goes off after the set number of minutes when there's no mouse/keyboard activity occurring.
There's been similar discussion on the Macworld Forums some years ago, and a specific post that essentially entails creating and running an AppleScript that will monitor your usage and launch an application when you go "idle".
In this case idle is only after 2 minutes, but you can easily change that to be longer if necessary. You will also want to modify the line to open Transmission instead of TextEdit.
Note that you will have to open this AppleScript and leave it running in order for the action (launching an application on idle) to ever occur.