New
#1
Task Scheduler - tasks waiting for specified idle time don't start
I am baffled as to why tasks I create, about half the time, do not run if the system is not idle at their set time to run. As an example, I have a task to run Malwarebytes at 12:00 am every day. If the system is idle at that time, the task starts and completes successfully. If the system is not idle at that time, sometimes it will start and complete sucessfully once the system has been idle long enough but sometimes I just get a "Task trigerred on scheduler" in the history and it never does run for that day. The same thing happens for all tasks I set up. Here are the settings for the tasks:
General:
Run only when user is logged on (changing to "Run whether user is logged on or not doesn't help)
Run with highest privileges checked (unchecking doesn't help)
Configure for: Windows 7, Windows Server 2008 R2 (I'm on Windows 7 - changing this value to one of the other selections doesn't help)
Triggers:
At whatever time every day
Actions:
Start whatever program
Conditions:
Start the task only if the computer is idle for: 10 minutes
Wait for idle for: 10 hours (changing to "Do not wait", 1 minute, 5 minutes doesn't help)
Wake the computer to run this task checked (this is a desktop and I have all hibernation, sleep shut off)
Settings:
Allow task to be run on demand checked
Run task as soon as possible after a scheduled start is missed checked
The weird thing is I found that MS has a task out there for System Restore which is set up just like my tasks (scheduled for every day at 12:00 am with the same conditions and settings) and it always works. For example, last night at midnight I was on my PC so it wasn't idle at the 12:00 am start time for both tasks. I got off the PC around 1:00 am. History for MS's Sytem Restore task shows it started at 1:29 am and completed successfully (which is what I would expect to happen). My Malwarebytes task history shows "task triggered on scheduler" at 12:00 am but it, for some reason, never went ahead and ran (as the System Restore task did) while I was off the PC between 1:00 am and returning around 8:00 am. This happens about half the time my PC isn't idle when one of my tasks is set to run. I have another task to run a registry backup porgram with two triggers - one at 3:00 am and one at 3:00 pm. It does the same thing for both triggers. Whenever the PC isn't idle when the trigger time is hit (whether 3:00 am or 3:00 pm) sometimes the task will run once the PC is idle long enough and sometimes it doesn't.
This behavior makes the scheduler pretty much worthless to me if I can't trust it to do what I need it to do. I've seen other people describing similar situations where the task doesn't run later if the system isn't idle at the scheduled time but I've seen no solution so I'm trying again.
I think sometimes this is a problem because people think their systems are idle but they're not. I know I've had services and one time that Conduit crapware that got installed without asking that used 3 or 4% and more of the CPU constantly. But, I have Drivegleam running (which I love) and I can easily see when my system should be considered idle based on CPU usage and physical disk activity.
Any insight would be greatly appreciated. Or, at least, thanks for letting me whine/vent here.
Last edited by Bobbob; 07 May 2013 at 12:58.