Task Scheduler: Run whether user is logged in or not: not working

Question

I have a Task scheduled to run in Windows server 2008 (start up notepad). It seems to work fine when "Run whether user is logged in or not" is not selected. however when I select it the the task no longer runs, Status says: Queued.

I'm not using any mapped drives for this.

Answer 1

Notepad is an application that requires user interaction. To run a task when a user isn't logged in, you need to run something that can run unattended without user interaction.

Create a batch file with the following lines in it (make sure the path c:/temp/ exists; it should, but double-check because Windows versions since XP usually don't create it automatically):

• @echo off
• date /t >> c:\temp\task-test.log
• time /t >> c:\temp\task-test.log
• echo ------------>> c:\temp\task-test.log
• cls
• exit

Then, set up a task that runs that file. You can check the contents of the file "c:\temp\task-test.log" using Windows Notepad to see what times and dates your task successfully ran that batch file.

If this works, then it probably means that the interactive requirements of Notepad are the issue.