Can't use "at" command on cmd prompt anymore?

[JS52]

So I used to be able to use the "at" command on command prompt, but now whenever I try to use it like:

at 5:00 shutdown -s -f

it says "the service has not been started." Any help would be appreciated. Thanks!

 

[Barman58]

You need to have the schedule service running for the At command to work correctly, this is the first thing I would check - it should be set to start automatically - also the At command has been depreciated in Windows 7 and though it still works Microsoft advises that your use the schtasks command instead

More information is in the Command Line Reference on Technet

At

 

[JS52]

When I launch the Task Scheduler it says "the remote computer was not found." And I can't create tasks. How would I go about fixing this issue?

 

[Barman58]

This is the Task Scheduler Service, rather than the Actual scheduler application? the service needs to be set to start with windows.

The only logical reason I would suggest for the network error is that a "bad" task is in the schedule list that incorrectly references a remote computer or cannot find a correctly referenced but unobtainable device or computer. Also if you open the scheduler it is often preferable to run as administrator too access all functions.

 

[JS52]

So how would I fix whatever it is I need to fix?

 

[Barman58]

The first thing I would do is open an admin command prompt and enter the at command on its own, this should simply list all current tasks, if you see a task that includes a \\computername\... type reference check the availability of this device and you can then use the \delete option to clear the ID number [care is needed as the delete option without an ID will delete all entries.

It may be easier to search through the entries using the actual Scheduled Tasks Application (Admin Mode)