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What's the Windows equivalent to cron, or for those of you unfamiliar with Unix, how does one schedule a program to run at regular intervals?

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Compare this question . – hstoerr Sep 7 '11 at 13:21
@hstoerr, I asked mine first. The other question was asked in December 2009, this one was asked in July 2009. – Paul Tomblin Sep 7 '11 at 13:31
That's fine. The link is for the benefit of people like me, who arrive at this question by search. – hstoerr Sep 7 '11 at 14:22
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4 Answers

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Scheduled Tasks:

With Scheduled Tasks, you can schedule any script, program, or document to run at a time that is most convenient for you. Scheduled Tasks starts every time that you start Windows XP and runs in the background, and it starts each task that you schedule at the time that you specify when you create the task.

Also, you should check out this article from Lifehacker on using Scheduled Tasks. It gives examples for Defragging your computer, restarting your computer, and opening Firefox when at startup with a set of websites

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Try having a program execute every half an hour. 8-{ No way. – hstoerr Sep 7 '11 at 13:13
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up vote 2 down vote

Another idea is to use Cygwin and use VixieCron. You can even install cron as a service so it will run your cronjobs without having Cygwin open. Its perfect for the Unix geek who doesn't have the time or want to learn the Windows way.

Here is a link that should help you get started. Running cygwin cron from windows as a service.

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up vote 1 down vote

Windows task scheduler. Support article for scheduling tasks on XP.

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The AT command does the same job, I am guessing it is still supported on vista ... checking ... yes it is still on W7 RC 1, just type "at /?" for how to use it.

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at is just the command-line command to create scheduled tasks. It's still the Task Scheduler Service running in background :) – Joey Jul 17 '09 at 0:36
Sure, but for a unix head (like me) I tend to think in terms of the command line utility, rather than the background service. I think of windows scheduler (incorrectly) as a scheduling wizard gui interface. – Bruce McLeod Jul 17 '09 at 0:59
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