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DaveThorson
Guest
Thanks in advance for any help or suggestions!
I can't start Task Scheduler service. In Services its Startup Type is Disabled. If I right-click on Task Scheduler, the Start/Stop/Pause/Resume/Restart options are grey and can't be clicked. If I right-click and select Properties, all options on all tabs are grey and locked.
If I use Regedit to change Startup Type (HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\Schedule, Start) from 4 (Disabled) to 2 (Automatic), it gets reset to 4 about 20-30 seconds later. While Start is still set to 2, I can right-click in Services and the Start option is available. If I click it to start, I get this message:
Services
Windows could not start the Task Scheduler service on Local Computer.
Error 1058: The service cannot be started, either because it is disabled or because it has no enabled devices associated with it.
If I try to run the Task Scheduler program from Computer Management, I get this error message:
Task Scheduler Service on the target computer cannot be contacted. Please ensure the service is
running properly and then use the "Connect to Another Computer" action to retry the connection.
If I try to run Task Scheduler from Cortana (type "Task Scheduler", click on Task Scheduler in the results list), I get this message:
Task Scheduler
The remote computer was not found.
This is blocking Windows Update, Disk Defrag, the Security-SPP (Software Protection) service fails every 30 seconds because Task Schedule not running, and many other things that try to run at at given time or interval.
So, what magical process keeps changing Task Scheduler's startup type from 2 to 4, and why is access blocked to change its properties? Why does Task Scheduler think I'm trying to connect to a remote PC?
I'm logged in as Administrator. I'm using Windows 10/64 Home with BitDefender antivirus, have Windows Defender set to do periodic scans (they probably never happen either). Malware Bytes shows nothing. Also using SecureAPlus (a whitelisting program that warns if anything new tries to run on my PC). I used to use McAffee antivirus (installed by Dell) and think this problem may have started when I removed it and switched to Bitdefender When I discovered this problem I had no Restore Points or image backups to recover from; it had been going on for too long.
Reinstalling Windows is not an option unless I know how to prevent this from happening in the future. I simple can't spend 2 weeks every quarter reinstalling my programs. I have run SFC /SCANNOW, and DISM.exe /Online /Cleanup-image /RestoreHealth
--- UPDATE a few minutes later ---
I found some help at task scheduler service's logon tab grayed out. Recommendation there from Dave Patrick (Microsoft Certified Professional and MVP) on Nov 9, 2017 was:
You may need some elevated permissions. You could try;
psexec -i -s cmd.exe
to run as the system account (nt authority)
PsExec - Windows Sysinternals
then;
services.msc
This let me change startup type in Services for Task Manager to Automatic, and properties were accessible for change. I started Task Manager and it ran without errors. Half a minute later it was stopped, startup type set to Disabled. This is as close as I've ever been to solving this in the past half-year. Still not working.
Continue reading...
I can't start Task Scheduler service. In Services its Startup Type is Disabled. If I right-click on Task Scheduler, the Start/Stop/Pause/Resume/Restart options are grey and can't be clicked. If I right-click and select Properties, all options on all tabs are grey and locked.
If I use Regedit to change Startup Type (HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\Schedule, Start) from 4 (Disabled) to 2 (Automatic), it gets reset to 4 about 20-30 seconds later. While Start is still set to 2, I can right-click in Services and the Start option is available. If I click it to start, I get this message:
Services
Windows could not start the Task Scheduler service on Local Computer.
Error 1058: The service cannot be started, either because it is disabled or because it has no enabled devices associated with it.
If I try to run the Task Scheduler program from Computer Management, I get this error message:
Task Scheduler Service on the target computer cannot be contacted. Please ensure the service is
running properly and then use the "Connect to Another Computer" action to retry the connection.
If I try to run Task Scheduler from Cortana (type "Task Scheduler", click on Task Scheduler in the results list), I get this message:
Task Scheduler
The remote computer was not found.
This is blocking Windows Update, Disk Defrag, the Security-SPP (Software Protection) service fails every 30 seconds because Task Schedule not running, and many other things that try to run at at given time or interval.
So, what magical process keeps changing Task Scheduler's startup type from 2 to 4, and why is access blocked to change its properties? Why does Task Scheduler think I'm trying to connect to a remote PC?
I'm logged in as Administrator. I'm using Windows 10/64 Home with BitDefender antivirus, have Windows Defender set to do periodic scans (they probably never happen either). Malware Bytes shows nothing. Also using SecureAPlus (a whitelisting program that warns if anything new tries to run on my PC). I used to use McAffee antivirus (installed by Dell) and think this problem may have started when I removed it and switched to Bitdefender When I discovered this problem I had no Restore Points or image backups to recover from; it had been going on for too long.
Reinstalling Windows is not an option unless I know how to prevent this from happening in the future. I simple can't spend 2 weeks every quarter reinstalling my programs. I have run SFC /SCANNOW, and DISM.exe /Online /Cleanup-image /RestoreHealth
--- UPDATE a few minutes later ---
I found some help at task scheduler service's logon tab grayed out. Recommendation there from Dave Patrick (Microsoft Certified Professional and MVP) on Nov 9, 2017 was:
You may need some elevated permissions. You could try;
psexec -i -s cmd.exe
to run as the system account (nt authority)
PsExec - Windows Sysinternals
then;
services.msc
This let me change startup type in Services for Task Manager to Automatic, and properties were accessible for change. I started Task Manager and it ran without errors. Half a minute later it was stopped, startup type set to Disabled. This is as close as I've ever been to solving this in the past half-year. Still not working.
Continue reading...