Windows 10 – How to Run an Interactive Scheduled Task for Any User

scheduled-tasktask-schedulerwindowswindows 10

I want to setup a windows 10 task scheduler to run a GUI based tasked interactively for any logged on user. Right now we have to explicitly specify the user name, so the task can only be run for this specific user. This scheduled task will be deployed on 1000s of computers for 100s of companies – all Windows 10, but of many, many difference configurations (pro, enterprise, OEM, site modified).

Looking at other scheduled tasks I see two possibilities:

"nt authority\interactive" – this is used by adobe acrobat update task

"Builtin\users" – this is used by some office tasks

Will either of these work for my purpose? Are they the "right" group to use that can be deployed on many disparate Win10 installations?

thanks!

Best Answer

As you want the application to start when any user logs on, I'd suggest the builtin\users security context. If the application needs admin rights, you would need to do a few things differently. Here's an example of the syntax you would use to have notepad run whenever a user logs on:

schtasks /create /ru builtin\users /sc onlogon /tn "Notepad On Logon" /tr C:\windows\system32\notepad.exe

Keep in mind, your installer will need admin rights to add the scheduled task.

Another thing to keep in mind: if the path to your executable has spaces, you'll need to use both double and single quotes around the path. So you'd use something like this:

/tr "'C:\path with spaces\myApplication.exe'"

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).

Scheduled Tasks GUI Issues – Troubleshooting on Windows

Do you have access to the source code for the program for debugging? It sounds like the windows creation is failing because there's no windows desktop available to the program unless the task owner is logged into the machine. This article http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms687105%28VS.85%29.aspx describes the process for window station and desktop creation.

Best Answer

Related Solutions

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

Scheduled Tasks GUI Issues – Troubleshooting on Windows

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