Questions about "Idle" conditions in built-in Task Scheduler

[pstein]

When I go to the "conditions" tab of the built-in Task Scheduler then there are two drop down entries:

• Start the task only if the computer is idle for: 15 minutes
• Wait for idle for: 1 hour

What is the difference between the two?
They seems to be equal to me

 

[wither 2]

I found this discussion about it-

windows - Task scheduler - What is "Wait for idle for"? - Super User

I'm not sure if it will answer your question

 

[iko22]

I found this discussion about it-

windows - Task scheduler - What is "Wait for idle for"? - Super User

I'm not sure if it will answer your question

Mmmm, I'm not sure that link answers the question, either.

The two statements should mean:

• Don't start task until computer has been idle for 15 minutes
• Give up waiting to start task if (scheduled task) already been waiting on computer for over 1 hour.

Does anybody get something like that?

 

[LMiller7]

The conditions are not at all the same.

Condition #1
The scheduler checks the current idle state. Has the computer been idle for at least 15 minutes? In this context idle means there has been no user input and the CPU usage has been below some low level. If this condition is true start the task. Otherwise continue with condition #2. This condition is to prevent a CPU intensive task from running while you are buy with for example a demanding game.

Condition #2
This occurs only if condition #1 fails, the computer is not idle. The second value of 1 hour is how long to wait until the computer is idle. The scheduler now waits for condition #1. If that occurs within the specified time limit of 1 hour start the task. If that does not occur it is time to give up and wait until the next scheduled time if such is configured. This condition exists so that an important task is not skipped if the computer happens to be busy when it is scheduled to run.