task scheduler doesn't work

dazco · 23 Dec 2010

I tried a few times to create a basic task that was to display a message and it never worked. I used task scheduler on XP for years w/o issues. I went over and over what i could have done wrong and i can't figure it out. The day, time everything was right as far as i can tell. so i've been sitting here creating tasks to display a message 5 minutes ahead so i can wait and see quickly and they too never show. TS is running in services so thats not it. Any ideas?

bigmck · 23 Dec 2010

dazco said:

I tried a few times to create a basic task that was to display a message and it never worked. I used task scheduler on XP for years w/o issues. I went over and over what i could have done wrong and i can't figure it out. The day, time everything was right as far as i can tell. so i've been sitting here creating tasks to display a message 5 minutes ahead so i can wait and see quickly and they too never show. TS is running in services so thats not it. Any ideas?

I have quite a few things that are scheduled, but they are at night and I really don't know if a prompt comes up or not. Why don't you schedule one task to run tonight, defragger for instance, and check in the morning to see if it ran.

dazco · 23 Dec 2010

I've already run a number of them and they don't run. Another question is what are all the tasks in there that i didn't create and can i delete or disable any of them. I googled this but found nothing.

bigmck · 23 Dec 2010

dazco said:

I've already run a number of them and they don't run. Another question is what are all the tasks in there that i didn't create and can i delete or disable any of them. I googled this but found nothing.

There are a bunch in mine also. I couldn't tell you what they are, but don't delete them. They must be there for a reason.

dazco · 23 Dec 2010

services are there for a reason too, but the reason isn't in my interest in some cases.

I suspect some are services, but whatever they are theres a ton of them and chances are many aren't necassary. I'm ;leaving them but i'd love to know what they are and see how important they are or aren't

mborner · 24 Dec 2010

Of the many, many, triggers in task scheduler, you must have one checked/unchecked that's preventing a task from running. Go ever every trigger and make sure they're set where they need to be.

KremmenUK · 24 Dec 2010

Is it the Task not starting or actually failing ?

Try and run the Task manually from within Task Scheduler to see if it starts and completes OK.

dazco · 24 Dec 2010

well, they say "success" but no message ever came up, and thats what i chose. And yes, i typed a message. I'll try another method....opening a text file with the message as i did in XP.

Bill2 · 24 Dec 2010

I just created a basic task 5 minutes ahead to display "hello bill" and the message displayed. So tell us the details- what are the trigger, action etc. you chose.

dazco · 24 Dec 2010

ok, just ran one and now i may possibly have a second issue. first, I scheduled it to run about 5 minutes ago and it says running right now. The task was to open a program which was a txt file which never opened even tho is says it's running NOW. I went thru all the settings for the nth time and i cannot find anything that could keep it from running. I even check the box that say open properties when finished where there are several more options and made sure there wasn't anything there that could cause it.

secondly, i apparently cannot open a text file because when i navigated to the file, in the properties of the task it shows windows\system\notepad.exe. So it's looking to open a blank notepad. Why did they have to ruin this app ! I love 7 for it's speed and stability, but i swear i think they ruined most of the features by making them less usable in one way or another.