Stopping a scheduled task with WMIC

automationbatch-filescheduled-taskwindows-server-2008-r2wmi

I need to find some method for disabling a scheduled task on a remote machine and waiting until that task has stopped executing if it happens to be running at the moment. I'd like to do this through WMIC if possible. This will be integrated into a larger batch process.

This is as far as I've gotten:

> wmic /node:%SERVER_NAME% /namespace:\\root\cimv2 path Win32_ScheduledJob

But this just returns:

No Instance(s) Available.

So I'm not sure if I'm doing anything wrong or if maybe I need to configure something on the server.

Best Answer

It seems that WMIC only supports jobs created with WMIC itself or created with the AT command (source - starting page 205).

That's certainly the reason why you get No Instance(s) Available.

I am also a Powershell addict, but if it is an issue you could use schtasks utility (as you mentioned).

To remotely disable a task :

schtasks /change /disable /TN "task name" /S server_fqdn /U domain\user /P password

The advantage of disabling a task is that you are sure that it will continue running until it finishes, in case it was running (only future executions are disabled in that case).

If you want to wait until the task finishes you will have to wait for the process to finish. To avoid the use of another third party tool/command you can do this with schtasks also, by querying the task status :

schtasks /query /TN "task name" /S server_fqdn /U domain\user /P password | finstr Running

(ps : note that i am not sure about the "running" status because my Windows OS is French. Check this according to your language).

schtasks /END will kill the task immediately.

Related Solutions

How to Run a .bat File in a Scheduled Task Without a Window

You could run it silently using a Windows Script file instead. The Run Method allows you running a script in invisible mode. Create a .vbs file like this one

Dim WinScriptHost
Set WinScriptHost = CreateObject("WScript.Shell")
WinScriptHost.Run Chr(34) & "C:\Scheduled Jobs\mybat.bat" & Chr(34), 0
Set WinScriptHost = Nothing

and schedule it. The second argument in this example sets the window style. 0 means "hide the window."

Complete syntax of the Run method:

 object.Run(strCommand, [intWindowStyle], [bWaitOnReturn])

Arguments:

object: WshShell object.
strCommand: String value indicating the command line you want to run. You must include any parameters you want to pass to the executable file.
intWindowStyle: Optional. Integer value indicating the appearance of the program's window. Note that not all programs make use of this information.
bWaitOnReturn: Optional. Boolean value indicating whether the script should wait for the program to finish executing before continuing to the next statement in your script. If set to true, script execution halts until the program finishes, and Run returns any error code returned by the program. If set to false (the default), the Run method returns immediately after starting the program, automatically returning 0 (not to be interpreted as an error code).

How to rename a task in Task Scheduled on Windows Server 2008 R2

Congratulations! You've come up against a problem that has stumped many a Windows user/admin. No, you cannot rename a task except for exporting, renaming and importing again. Yes, it's rather silly. Perhaps an enterprising scripter could create a simple PowerShell script that automates this, but until then, you're stuck with your export/import two-step. Sorry. =(

(You also can't rename a task folder after you've created it.)

Best Answer

Related Solutions

How to Run a .bat File in a Scheduled Task Without a Window

How to rename a task in Task Scheduled on Windows Server 2008 R2

Related Topic