Schedule tasks with Windows Task Scheduler

Task Scheduler runs programs and scripts for you: at startup, at a set time, or when a user signs in. It is the Windows answer to cron and the usual way to automate backups, clean-ups and restarts of your own tools.

Create a task with the graphical tool

1. Press Windows + R, type taskschd.msc and press Enter.
2. Click Create Task (not "Create Basic Task", which hides useful options).
3. General: give it a name. Choose Run whether user is logged on or not for scripts that need no window, and tick Run with highest privileges if the script needs admin rights.
4. Triggers → New: for example Daily at 03:00, or At startup.
5. Actions → New: Start a program. For a PowerShell script, program powershell.exe and arguments -NoProfile -ExecutionPolicy Bypass -File "C:\Scripts\cleanup.ps1".
6. Settings: tick If the task fails, restart every 5 minutes if it should retry.
7. Click OK and enter the account password when asked.

Create the same task in PowerShell

$action  = New-ScheduledTaskAction -Execute "powershell.exe" -Argument '-NoProfile -ExecutionPolicy Bypass -File "C:\Scripts\cleanup.ps1"'
$trigger = New-ScheduledTaskTrigger -Daily -At 3am
Register-ScheduledTask -TaskName "Nightly cleanup" -Action $action -Trigger $trigger -User "SYSTEM" -RunLevel Highest

Run it once now to test, and see the result:

Start-ScheduledTask -TaskName "Nightly cleanup"
Get-ScheduledTaskInfo -TaskName "Nightly cleanup" | Select-Object LastRunTime, LastTaskResult

A LastTaskResult of 0 means success.

Good uses

• Copy important folders to a backup location every night (backup guide).
• Delete log files older than 30 days.
• Restart a service that occasionally hangs.

Troubleshooting

• Task says it ran but nothing happened: the script probably uses relative paths. Use full paths, or set Start in on the action.
• Result 0x1: the script itself returned an error. Run the same command by hand in PowerShell to see the message.
• Task never starts: check the History tab (enable it with Enable All Tasks History in the right panel).

Next steps

• Keep apps running 24/7 on your RDP
• Set the time zone on Windows Server