How to Display a Message Reminder in Windows with Task Scheduler
Information
This will show you how to create yourself, or another user or group, a message reminder scheduled to display for when and how often you like in Windows 7 or Vista using Task Scheduler.
All users on the computer will be able to do this.
Note
The steps may look long and complicated, but this is really quite easy to do. I just included a lot of details to help make it easy.
Warning
The message reminder might not always appear on top of the current active window if you just happen to be typing or clicking in the window (ex: Internet Explorer) at the same time when the message reminder displays causing the message reminder to no longer be the active window and not on top.
The message reminder will also have a icon on the taskbar to indicate that it has displayed.
You could also use what Dwarf's posted below to avoid this as well.
EXAMPLE: Message Reminder NOTE:This is the type of message reminder pop-up dialog that will be displayed on your desktop with your message title and message you set for when and how often in Task Scheduler.
Here's How:
1. Open the Start Menu, type taskschd.msc, and press Enter.
2. If prompted by UAC, then click on Yes (Windows 7) or Continue (Vista).
3. In the left pane, click on Task Scheduler Library folder to select it, then click on Create Task in the right pane. (see screenshot below)
4. In the General tab, type in a Name and Description for this task to help let you know what it's for. (see screenshot below)
5. If you wanted to change what user or group this message reminder will display for other than than the default of your user account, then click on the Change User or Group button and follow the steps in the screenshot below to select a user or group. If not, then skip this step and go to step 6. NOTE:The steps are numbered in the order to follow for how to select a different user or group. The Users group would be for all users.
6. Click on the Triggers tab, and click on the New button. (see screenshot below)
7. If not already selected, then select On a schedule. (see screenshot below) NOTE:You could select what event you would like or works better for you instead, but I'm just using this one as an example. If you select a different option, then you will have different setting to set instead of the ones in steps 7A-7B below.
A) Select how often you want the message reminder to display. (see screenshot below)
B) Depending on what you selected in step 7A, select and set when (ex: date and time) you want the message reminder to display. (see screenshots below)
C) When finished, click on OK. (see screenshot above)
8. Click on the Actions tab, and click on the New button. (see screenshot below)
9. In the Action drop down menu, select Display a message. (see screenshot above) NOTE:See red warning box at the top of the tutorial.
10. Type in a Title and Message that you want displayed in the message reminder, and click on OK. (see screenshot above)
11. Click on the Conditions tab, uncheck the Stopif the computer switches to batter power box, and uncheck the Start the task only if the computer is on AC power box. (see screenshot below)
12. Click on the Settings tab, check the Run task as soon as possible after a scheduled start is missed box, and check the If the task fails, restart every: box. (see screenshot below)
13. Click on OK. (see screenshot below)
14. You will now see this task listed in the Task Scheduler Library folder. (see screenshot below) NOTE:You will always be able to edit or delete this task.
15. Close Task Scheduler. You're message reminder will now display for the user or group and when you have it set for in this task.
In some cases, the message might not appear on top of the current window. In order to alleviate this, a slight change needs to be made at Step 9. Instead of selecting the action Display a message, choose Start a program instead. This allows you to have greater flexibility, as you can have the same message appear for all users, for some users (and nothing for the others), or different messages for each user.
The basic code for the program (a .vbs file) is as follows:
Code:
MsgBox "Don't forget to create yourself an example message today at SevenForums.com", vbSystemModal
System Manufacturer/Model Number Dwarf Dwf/11/2012 OS Windows 7 Ultimate x64 Service Pack 1 CPU Intel Core-i5-3570K 4-core @ 3.4GHz (Ivy Bridge) (OC 4.2GHz) Motherboard ASRock Z77 Extreme4-M Memory 4 x 4GB DDR3-1600 Corsair Vengeance CMZ8GX3M2A1600C9B (16GB) Graphics Card 2 x AMD Radeon HD7770 1GB CrossFired (OC 1100MHz/1250MHz) Sound Card Realtek High Definition on board solution (ALC 898) Monitor(s) Displays ViewSonic VA1912w Widescreen (VGA) Screen Resolution 1440x900
Keyboard Microsoft Comfort Curve Keyboard 3000 (USB) Mouse Microsoft Comfort Mouse 3000 for Business (USB) PSU XFX Pro Series 850W Semi-Modular Case Gigabyte IF233 Cooling 1 x 120mm Front Inlet 1 x 120mm Rear Exhaust Hard Drives OCZ Agility 3 SSD 120GB SATA III x2 (RAID 0)
Samsung HD501LJ 500GB SATA II x2
Hitachi HDS721010CLA332 1TB SATA II
Iomega 1.5TB Ext USB 2.0
WD 2.0TB Ext USB 3.0 Internet Speed NetGear DG834Gv3 ADSL Modem/Router (Ethernet) ~4.0 Mb/s (O2) Antivirus Avast! 7.0.1474 Browser IE 9 Other Info Optical Drive: HL-DT-ST BD-RE BH10LS30 SATA Bluray
Lexmark S305 Printer/Scanner/Copier (USB)
CTF-430 Tablet & Pen
WEI Score: 7.7/7.9/7.4/7.4/7.9
Asus Eee PC 1011PX Netbook (Windows 7 x86 Starter)
In some cases, the message might not appear on top of the current window. In order to alleviate this, a slight change needs to be made at Step 9. Instead of selecting the action Display a message, choose Start a program instead. This allows you to have greater flexibility, as you can have the same message appear for all users, for some users (and nothing for the others), or different messages for each user.
The basic code for the program (a .vbs file) is as follows:
Code:
MsgBox "Don't forget to create yourself an example message today at SevenForums.com", vbSystemModal
Thank you very much for this! I found the Task Scheduler reminder message to be quite useless, as it displays underneath everything so I never see it, so the vbs option is perfect.
Do you know any trick to get the POP UP WINDOW of that message to POP UP ON TOP OF THE OTHER opened windows? Also do you know how we could assign a louder sound?
It is working real neat but I would dearly like to add these two features...
You could use the alternative option in the red warning box at the top of the tutorial to use a .vbs file to run with a task instead for it to appear on top.
I don't remember what sound event (Alert ?? maybe) the task message pop-up belongs to, but it would be in Sounds to change it to play whatever sound (.wav) file you like.
Yes, that would be correct. You would just copy and paste that in notepad, then save it as whatever.vbs. Afterwards, use Task Scheduler to run the .vbs file how you like.
Code:
MsgBox "Whatever message you want", vbSystemModal
I think the sound event is "System Notification".
The link below can give you the basics about VBS files.
Thanks Brink, It worked fine. I will get a little more litterate with VBS before adventuring further ahead! But id does look like a promising option to do even more stuff in conjunction with the TASK SCHEDULER.
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Note
Warning
Quote: Originally Posted by Dwarf 
Free ToDo or Reminder that uses Task Scheduler ?? 
