How to schedule your computer to run tasks automatically
Our building will have a power failure at a particular time. You may want your computer to stay on til just before the power goes out due to various reasons:
- It may be a web or file server serving other clients around the world.
- You may want to access it from a remote location
Choose Start->Control Panel->Scheduled Tasks. Right click (or hit the Context menu button on your keyboard) and choose Open. (this avoids the Scheduled Task Wizard)
Choose File->New->Scheduled task and give it a name. Hit Enter or dbl-click on it to tell it what to do. I want it to run the Shutdown command in a command prompt.
Be sure the Run As, password are set, so the task has the rights to run.
So type in “cmd /c shutdown –f –s” and schedule it as you like.
Usage: shutdown [-i | -l | -s | -r | -a] [-f] [-m \\computername] [-t xx] [-c "comment"] [-d up:xx:yy]
No args Display this message (same as -?)
-i Display GUI interface, must be the first option
-l Log off (cannot be used with -m option)
-s Shutdown the computer
-r Shutdown and restart the computer
-a Abort a system shutdown
-m \\computername Remote computer to shutdown/restart/abort
-t xx Set timeout for shutdown to xx seconds
-c "comment" Shutdown comment (maximum of 127 characters)
-f Forces running applications to close without warning
-d [u][p]:xx:yy The reason code for the shutdown
u is the user code
p is a planned shutdown code
xx is the major reason code (positive integer less than 256)
yy is the minor reason code (positive integer less than 65536)
Over the years, I’ve used the task scheduler to run various processes (like compiling or syncing) automatically.
On Vista, choose Control Panel->Admin Tools->Task Scheduler. Make sure to choose Task Scheduler Library from the treeview on the left to see tasks you create. You can easily just display a messagebox to your user. For example, you could make it display an annoying message every hour. Vista allows you to run a task at various events, such as Log On, StartUp, idle, etc.
There is also the AT command:
AT /?
The AT command schedules commands and programs to run on a computer at
a specified time and date. The Schedule service must be running to use
the AT command.
AT [\\computername] [ [id] [/DELETE] | /DELETE [/YES]]
AT [\\computername] time [/INTERACTIVE]
[ /EVERY:date[,...] | /NEXT:date[,...]] "command"
\\computername Specifies a remote computer. Commands are scheduled on the
local computer if this parameter is omitted.
id Is an identification number assigned to a scheduled
command.
/delete Cancels a scheduled command. If id is omitted, all the
scheduled commands on the computer are canceled.
/yes Used with cancel all jobs command when no further
confirmation is desired.
time Specifies the time when command is to run.
/interactive Allows the job to interact with the desktop of the user
who is logged on at the time the job runs.
/every:date[,...] Runs the command on each specified day(s) of the week or
month. If date is omitted, the current day of the month
is assumed.
/next:date[,...] Runs the specified command on the next occurrence of the
day (for example, next Thursday). If date is omitted, the
current day of the month is assumed.
"command" Is the Windows NT command, or batch program to be run.
But
See also
How To Use the Remote Shutdown Tool to Shut Down and Restart a Computer in Windows 2000
Comments
Anonymous
May 11, 2007
Your link for "Task Scheduler" is broken. Also, schtasks.exe is very useful as well! :)Anonymous
May 11, 2007
thanks: i've fixed the linkAnonymous
November 05, 2007
i would like to shutdown all my computer's every day at 8.00 pm.can any body help me how to schedule that.Anonymous
February 11, 2008
Hi, In Windows XP if you run the AT command with /interactive option, you can log in as system user. (for example "at 0:00 /interactive cmd") In Windows Vista this does not work (interactive for system account). I tried schtasks and it runs the cmd command, but not in interactive mode. How can I run a program as system user in an interactive mode in Windows Vista? Thank you, Mircea PS. The command in Vista which I tried is: schtasks /create /sc once /tn myexplorer /tr "cmd.exe /c cmd.exe" /ru system /st 0:00 and when you run the task it runs cmd.exe as system user, but not in interactive mode.Anonymous
March 04, 2008
SCHTASKS /Create [/S system [/U username [/P [password]]]] [/RU username [/RP password]] /SC schedule [/MO modifier] [/D day] [/M months] [/I idletime] /TN taskname /TR taskrun [/ST starttime] [/RI interval] [ {/ET endtime | /DU duration} [/K] ] [/SD startdate] [/ED enddate] [/IT] [/Z] [/F] /IT Enables the task to run interactively only if the /RU user is currently logged on at the time the job runs. This task runs only if the user is logged in. but you need to use /RU (/RP) switches to specify user's credentials in which context task will operate. i still didn't find solution to add interactiv job for any user on Vista.Anonymous
October 02, 2008
HI....... Im looking such a kind of software where we can set a time to launch the required software and do the work..... (it should have the recording ability ex: if i open a clean up software and strat cleaning.. after that i clean unwanted files and exit)... if any thing like this is there.. plz email me ..... thank youAnonymous
May 01, 2011
How can i turn on my computer with scheduler?