[Resovlved] Re: Task Schedular Problem.
As Ja Ja Binks would say "Me give up, me give up". I True Imaged the drive.
I figured with all the help, suggestions and pointers here and not really
getting anywhere - so what the hey.
I do want to thank everyone for all the great help, pointers and assistance.
It is/was greatly appreciated.
Please review my comments below in response to the questions in this post. I
like to complete details as much as possible.
NB: I mentioned in an earlier post that I was going to try Scheduling a Task
in Safe Mode - I then remembered that the Schedular Service won't fire in
SM, so I didn't perform that setp.
Cheers to all...
"VanguardLH" wrote in message
news:hnp3oi$t7t$1@news.albasani.net...
> Barry Dilka wrote:
>
>> 1) \\computername\username,
>
> The prepended slashes ("\\") should be removed when entering the computer
> and account for the Run As parameter's value when using the Task Scheduler
> GUI. Just use "\"
>
> schtasks has its own separate /S parameter to specify the computer's name,
> so don't prepend "\\" there, either. Use "/S /U
> "
> (omit the /S parameter if you are creating the task on your own host).
>
> The "\\" before is only added when using the at.exe
> command-
> line program.
>
>> 2) The task never runs. Actually (depending on the task) it may or may
>> not
>> show up in the Task Manager, but not interactively. Notepad for example
>> is
>> displayed in TM, but that's it,
>
No Worries, the Schedular was running. Yes indeedy, it was set to Auto...
> I forgot to check your prior posts. Did you check the scheduler service
> ("Task Scheduler") is defined, set to Automatic startup mode, and is
> current
> in a running state?
>
> - Run: services.msc (must be logged under an admin-level account)
> - Look for the "Task Scheduler" service.
> - Check the service is currently running (started).
> - Check the service is configured for Automatic startup.
> - Check the service starts under the "Local System" (SYSTEM) account, not
> under a specific account (which may not even exist anymore).
> o Here is the option "Allow service to interact with desktop" that
> Pegasus
> might've referred to. I've never had this option enabled yet I've been
> able to create scheduled tasks and see them run (if they open a window
> although some programs don't need a console to run or only use a tray
> icon).
> - Under the Log On tab, check this service enabled for all hardware
> profiles
> listed (or, at least, the hardware profiles where you want it active).
> For example, you could define normal and game hardware profiles where the
> game profile doesn't enable many services that aren't needed when you
> boot
> and select the game profile. This eliminates conflicts, problems, and
> unnecessary resource consumption when playing a game if you use a
> hardware
> profile and select it during bootup of Windows.
>
>
>> 3) No errors in the log (neither of them),
>
Yes, the task would show up in the GUI. Right Clicking -> Run showed the
task running in Task Manage, but no interaction with the user/desktop.
Start - Run would work just fine for any program or task that I wanted to
run.
> Expected if the job never executes that is being monitored by Task
> Scheduler. So it looks like the task never does get executed. If you add
> the task using the GUI for Task Scheduler, do you see the job show up in
> that GUI? If so, right-click and select Run. Do you see that program's
> window now even if only for a short time if the program runs quickly?
> Does
> that program actually run without error? If it errors, like not even
> loading, then there won't be a window but you should see a log entry
> accounting for the failure. Will the program run from Start -> Run? If
> is
> is a console-mode program, open a command shell (cmd.exe) and run the
> command string to make sure what you think should run actually will run.
>
>> 4) Nothing shows up on the task bar - assuming a task runs. So for
>> example,
>> in the command script that I tried earlier, I have several observations:
>> a)
>> The task shows up in the GUI Task schedular (not at the command prompt
>> with
>> "AT") After the scheduled time, the event remains in the GUI display,
>
Thanks for this pointer, I wasn't aware of this.
> 'at' tasks do not automatically cleanup after themself even when scheduled
> to run just once. Even the jobs you define in the GUI for Task Scheduler
> will not disappear when scheduled to run only once. You have to enable
> the
> option "Delete the task if not scheduled to run again" to have it
> disappear
> after it ran its one time.
>
I made sure when using the 'AT' command to schedule in Military Time to the
msec: 15:30:00
> You say an 'at' defined job is showing up in the Task Scheduler's GUI. So
> it does look like it is getting defined. You say the job doesn't run at
> its
> scheduled time. Are you sure that you are using 24-hour military time
> when
> specifying the start time? There is no AM/PM paramter to the 'at' or
> 'schtask' programs. If you want the job to run at 5:17PM then you have to
> enter "17:17" for the time value. When using the GUI to Task Scheduler,
> you
> are shown times with AM/PM affixes to ensure you are picking the correct
> time, but 'at' and 'schtask' require 24-hour format. 'schtasks /create
> /?'
> at least warns you about that for its /ST parameter but help for 'at' is
> very terse.
>
>> 5) If I right-click the task and select run, nothing happens at all,
>
> Which leads me to believe that either you don't have permissions to run
> the
> program specified in the Run field or you have an invalid program filename
> or the parameters to that program are invalid.
>
Did this as well (I would have mentioned this, but I was trying not to
clutter up this post with what I thought to be elimentary steps and not
waste peoples time. But another good point.
> In the GUI for Task Scheduler, look at the properties for the job you say
> is
> there. Copy the Run field's value. Open a command shell (cmd.exe).
> Paste
> the command string to ensure you are running exactly the same entire
> command
> string (program and parameters). Don't hand copy the value of the Run
> field. Copy and paste so you have an exact copy of the entire string.
> Does
> it run from the command shell?
>
> If it doesn't run from the command shell, the problem isn't with Task
> Scheduler at all and simplifies to why you cannot run that command. It
> could be something as simply as you forgeting to enclose strings within
> double-quotes that contain spaces.
>
> C:\Program Files\Internet Explorer\iexplore.exe -nohome
>
Good point again. When doing something like this I would always use the 8.3
name: Progra~1\etc... Or enclose the strin gin double quotes as you note
below.
> is not a valid command string because of the spaces embedded in the path
> to
> the executable file (and the executable file could also have spaces).
> Parsing would end at "C:\Program" but no such file "Program" (with no
> extension, too) would be found under "C:\". The proper command would be:
>
> "C:\Program Files\Internet Explorer\iexplorer.exe" -nohome