Microsoft Task Scheduler Tips & Tricks

I use Microsoft Task Scheduler for a couple of different jobs and over time I’ve found that different jobs require different “tricks” to get them to work properly. I’m going to try to summarize some of those tips & tricks here for you.

First though, I’m going to quickly sketch out how to create a simple task in Task Scheduler. If you are already comfortable with creating tasks feel free to skip to the Tips & Tricks section below.

As an example task – I will walk you through creating a scheduled pop-up reminder in Task Scheduler.

1. In Windows 7 or Windows 8, press the Windows key to bring up your start menu/page and type “Task Scheduler”
2. Open the program with that name
3. On the right hand side of the window, click the “Create Task” button in the “Actions” list
4. Type a name for your task in the “Name” field
5. In the “Configure for:” drop down menu at the bottom of the screen, choose the operating system that you are using (for some reason on Windows 7, this menu defaults to Vista.)
6. Select the “Triggers” tab along the top of the window
7. Click the “New…” button
8. Select from the various options what type of schedule you would like your task to run on. For this example, I have chosen to begin the task on a schedule, Daily, Repeat task every 30 minutes for a duration of “Indefinitely”
9. Click the “OK” button
10. Select the “Actions” tab along the top of the window
11. Click the “New” button
12. From the “Action” pull down menu, I have selected “Display a message”
13. Title: Reminder!
14. Message: Stand up & stretch!
15. Click the “OK” button
16. Select the “Conditions” tab along the top of the window
17. Depending on the task, I usually deselect the “Stop if the computer switches to battery power” and “Start the task only if the computer is on AC power” options.
18. Select the “Settings” tab along the top of the window
19. Select the “Run task as soon as possible after a scheduled start is missed”
20. Change the “Stop the task if it runs longer than:” option to 1 hour. This will keep a task from running in the background chewing up processing power if it fails to exit cleanly
21. Click “OK”

You now have a basic reminder set to go off every 30 minutes to help you keep your blood flowing while you read my long tutorials 😉

Tips & Tricks

Okay, now for some more detailed Tips & Tricks.

1. On system start-up – if your task calls a batch job, and keeps failing to execute, you may need to grant your user(s) the “Logon as a batch job” permission
   1. To do so: In the Control Panel, open Administrative Tools, then Local Security Policy (Or simply type “Local Security Policy” in your start menu)
   2. Beneath Security Settings, open Local Policies and highlight User Rights Assignment
   3. Locate Log on as a batch job. Open the properties and add any users that need this permission
   4. When finished, save your changes and close the Local Security Settings window
   5. Your changes should take effect immediately. To make changes to the Domain Security Policy, on a domain controller, use the Domain Security Policy utility in the Control Panel
2. Instead of choosing to start a task when the system starts, choose “At logon” with the check-box for “Any user” checked. Sometimes a program will behave better if you start it at log on instead of at system start-up.
3. If you have a lot of programs that start at system start-up or user log on, you may want to stagger your tasks to start over 30 seconds or a minute after logon to try to give the computer a break between tasks. This can help keep your computer from freezing up, trying to start so many programs at once.
4. Try experimenting with calling batch files on a scheduled basis. You can automate many different chores this way. Examples that I run including automating file backups, automating e-mail backups, reminders to stand & stretch, automatically start programs at logon, deleting temporary file directories on a regular basis, etc.

Outlook Quick Steps – Improve your workflow

Quick Steps are little automated actions that you can set up in Outlook to improve your workflow. Examples of Quick Steps include:

• Filing steps (moving, copying, deleting)
• Change message status (read, unread, important)
• Categorize, add to tasks & set flags
• Hotkeys for response actions (reply, forward, etc.)
• Hotkeys for creating new appointments
• Hotkeys for dealing with conversation threads

In addition, you can combine actions.
For example, you can set up a hotkey which sends an e-mail to a specified folder, sets the status to important and starts a new appointment dialog window all with one key.

1. To create a new Quick Step, select the “Create New” button in the “Quick Steps” section on the “Home” tab on the ribbon.



2. Enter a name for this new shortcut in the “Name:” box.
3. Pull down on the “Actions” drop down menu and select (for example) “Move to folder”.
4. In the new pull down menu below, choose which folder you want to move the mail to.
5. Select the “Add Action” button if you want to add a secondary action. Repeat steps 3 and 4 for the new action.
6. Choose a shortcut (hotkey) combination if desired.
7. Click “Finish”.

How to synchronize Windows 7 Clock with Internet Time Clock

For some reason, Windows 7’s clock is not set to synchronize with an Internet clock by default. In addition, it’s set to “synchronize” (with what, I’m not sure) only once a week, versus on a daily or an even more frequent basis. I typically like my clock to synchronize once every 10 to 15 minutes.

To address these issues – I’ve written up a quick tutorial.

To update the synchronization task to run every 15 minutes

1. In the Windows 7 Start Menu Search Bar, type in “Task Scheduler” and open the associated program.
2. In the Task Scheduler window there are 3 columns. In the middle column there is a section labeled “Active Tasks” with a list of tasks below. Double-click on “SynchronizeTime” in the list.
3. In the window column on the left hand side, select the “Properties” button
4. In the window that opens, select the “Triggers” tab.
5. Highlight the trigger listed in the box and click the “Delete” button at the bottom of the window.
6. Click the “New” button at the bottom of the window.
7. In the settings section, select the “Daily” radio button.
8. Set the “Start” time to be today’s date at 8:00:00 AM
9. In the “Advanced settings” section below, select the “Repeat task every:” check box and choose your preferred repetition speed. I chose “15 minutes”.
10. In the box to the right “for a duration of:” select “Indefinitely”
11. Click the “OK” button.
12. Click the “OK” button.
13. Exit the Task Scheduler program.

To set the Windows 7 clock to synchronize with an internet clock

I prefer to set my clock by a time-server that is closest to me – in my case I use Georgia Tech’s US Navel Observatory’s Time Server tick.gatech.edu. For a list of USNO Time Servers visit the following link: http://tycho.usno.navy.mil/ntp.html Believe it or not, if you use a time-server that’s closer to you geographically speaking, your clock will theoretically be slightly more accurate. Weather this actually works in practice, I cannot tell you.

To set the clock to synchronize with the server of your choice:

1. Open up Control Panel
2. Select “Date and Time”
3. Select the “Internet Time” tab
4. Click “Change Settings”
5. Ensure that the check box for “Synchronize with an Internet time-server” is selected
6. Type the Server name you wish to use in the “Server:” box
7. Click “Update Now” to make sure that the server name works. Should return back a success message when it is complete.
8. Click the “OK” button
9. Click the “OK” button