‘Schedule tasks‘ is a GUI application using which we can schedule tasks, There is an equivalent utility which provides the same functionality but with the advantage that it can be used from windows command line. This command is Schtasks. This is an in-built windows command supported by Windows 11 and Windows 10. Let’s see the syntax of this command with the help of few examples.
How to schedule a task ?
If you are logged into the same computer where you want to run the scheduled task, then you can use the below command to create the task.
Schtasks create /RU username /RP password /SC schedule_frequency /MO Schedule_modifier /D days /M months /TN taskname /TR Task_command /ST start_time /SD start_day /ED end_date
Now let’s see few examples.
Example 1: Schedule disk defragmentation on every Saturday at 10AM. User credentials are administrator/password.
Schtasks /create /RU administrator /RP adminpassword /SC weekly /D SAT /TN defrag /TR c:windowssystem32defrag.exe /ST 10:00:00
If the specified username and password are correct, then you would get the below message when you run the above command.
SUCCESS: The scheduled task "defrag" has successfully been created.
If the credentials are not correct, you may get a warning like below.
WARNING: The Scheduled task "defrag5" has been created, but may not run because the account information could not be set.
If there exists a scheduled task with the same name then the error would be:
specified task name already exists in the system.
If you need to use a domain user account to run the task you can specify domainnameusername with /RU option.
How to get the list of scheduled tasks?
Just run Schtasks command and you can see the list of scheduled commands.
C:>schtasks TaskName Next Run Time Status ==================================== ======================== =============== defrag 10:00:00, 3/12/2011 GoogleUpdateTaskUserS-1-5-21-3567637 11:14:00, 3/6/2011 GoogleUpdateTaskUserS-1-5-21-3567637 13:14:00, 3/5/2011
If you want complete details about each of the tasks you can run the command ‘Schtasks /query /v
Delete a scheduled task
We can delete a schedule task using ‘schtasks /delete /TN task_name‘ command. For example, to delete the task we created in the example 1 we can run the below command.
Schtasks /delete /TN defrag
Delete all the scheduled tasks
You can run the below command to delete all the scheduled tasks.
schtasks /delete /TN *
Disable a scheduled task
There does not seem to be a way to disable a scheduled task from command line. We can delete the tasks as mentioned above.
Modify a scheduled task:
We can change a scheduled task using ‘schtasks /change’ command. Run ‘schtasks /change /?’ for the syntax.
how to delete from the folder?
schtasks /delete /TN “Microsoft\Windows\Application Experience\Microsoft Compatibility Appraiser” /F
It is possibile to disable sheduled task. Here is an example:
schtasks /Change /TN “Microsoft\Windows\MUI\LPRemove” /Disable
Thank you all.
How do you do it if the task is meant to be run on a DIFFERENT computer (like with the “connect to another computer”)? Thank you! On cmd please.
Use:
schtasks /s
Hello,
I’m regarding to run a batch file by a schedule task.
This script is running chrome with a specific url.
The problem is that I must choose some credential in my command line like this :
schtasks /create /sc once /tn Video_XP /tr “\\myserver\myscript.bat” /u contoso\admin /p mypassword /st 12:25:00
The problem is that the task is running with an other account than the login one.
If I replace /u by %username% i’m not able to specify the passord and the task will stuck in background requesting password.
Any ideas ?
Please tell how can I know whether a task is Enabled/Disabled using CMD queries
Please provide a Example supporting your answer.
what to add in cmd for sidebar execute properties, setting,
for this two things:
if the task fails, restart every: 30 minutes
also deselect stop the last if it runs longer den
Can I get the command to enable “Run whether user is logged in or not” option while scheduling task from command line.
Thanks in advance
Hello everybody!
I was forced to use win10 –
lot’s of automatic pop ups, reminders and other annoying stuff
called “features”. However:
My company is constructing high-level measurement devices.
(i’m doing electronics)
our win-develloper just committed suicide and i’m left with the crap…
(just kidding)
Please help me!
A pop up that wanted to update or install language-support popped up
and tried to connect to www to do some updates – Why?! The sys was running fine!
Since our devices are ment to work headless but only with a remote-access,
there will be no connection to www ever… So:
Q1) how to get win10 a bit more www-independent?
Back to the pop-ups: As a source of evel, i identified schtasks…
I don’t consider it smart, to have a let’s tidy-up-the harddrive-task starting in the bg,
or debugging when our customer just wants to shut down the system and is forced to wait.
So, what will be damaged (especially concerning wifi) when i just do
schtask /TN * /delete?
Thanks a lot for your answers!
(Sorry for my upset state…)
indigo
schtasks /Create /tn “mytask” /sc MINUTE /mo 1 /ru “myuser” /rp “mypassword” /tr “C:\Windows\System32\calc.exe”
this command does not run calculater.
Any help in this?
schtasks /Create /tn “mytask” /sc MINUTE /mo 1 /tr “C:\Windows\System32\calc.exe”
i guess you can run calc as a dif user, but no need to if youre just trying to add something. otherwise your syntax was incorrect and idk what your username and password were.
and you will want to run this after you get the above correct unless you want to see the calc open up every minute… ;)
schtasks /delete /TN mytask
Hi nice tutorial and blog
How to setup a task to run a c:\myfile.bat once a week on login from command line?