Task Scheduler

Description:

Makes it possible to schedule a command or program to execute at a specified time & date.
This service is also referred to as the AT service, and is required for the AT command. The Task Scheduler listens on a dynamic TCP port starting from 1025, depending whether other applications tries to acquire a dynamic TCP port then it might get port no. like 1026 or higher.

Note that with IE5 a new task scheduler came which allows one to use GUI interface to configure tasks. Though these tasks cannot be seen with AT. More Info MS KB220149

Note in WinXP the AT command has been replaced with Schtasks. One can modify the Schtasks.exe so it works with Win2k.

Note in WinXP a new policy has been introduced, which prevents running scheduled tasks using an account which has no password. More Info MS KB311119

Note in Win2k the Task Scheduler might fail to schedule tasks with the following error if Protected Storage have become corrupt:

The new task has been created, but may not run because the account information could not be set. The specific error is: 0x80090016: Keyset does not exist.
0x8009000f: Object already exists.

Note in Vista the Task Scheduler now includes several default tasks, which are triggered by things like windows-startup, user-login, eventlog-events, time-event, etc. More Info MS KB939039

Related Configure the Task Scheduler Log

More Info MS KB124859
More Info MS KB138340
More Info MS KB142040
More Info MS KB158825
More Info MS KB171773
More Info MS KB178706 (How to create scheduled task in Win98)
More Info MS KB304288
More Info MS KB308569 (How to create scheduled task in WinXP)
More Info MS KB313565
More Info MS KB814596
More Info MS Technet - Scheduled Tasks in Windows Vista

  • Automatic, if using WinXP/Vista and wants prefetching, bootvis and System Restore to work properly.
  • Disabled, if programs are not needed to be scheduled to start at a specific time.
Default State:
  • Automatic
Process Name:
  • WinNT4: Atsvc.exe (Schedule)
  • Win2k/WinNT4 + IE5: MSTask.exe (Schedule)
  • WinXP/Win2k3/Vista: svchost.exe -k netsvcs (Schedule)
Supports:
  • None
Depends: