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When I start my task scheduler on Windows 7 I get a dialog with the following error:

The selected task "{0}" no longer exists. To see the current tasks, click Refresh

enter image description here

Also there's a UUID, that is displayed as the name and when I try to delete it I cannot, it just hangs around. Is there a fix for this?

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7

Sounds like a corrupted task.

Head to C:\Windows\System32\Tasks\ and manually delete the offending task -- this may take some trial and error if you don't know which task(s) are causing the problem.

It's probably best to make a backup of that folder before you start deleting things. :)

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  • It had the same name as the task. – leeand00 Apr 6 '15 at 19:39
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    Interesting new quirk in Windows 10: Even after you delete the file off the disk, TaskMgr.exe still complains. – Warren P Sep 9 '15 at 20:38
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I upgraded to Windows 10 and hoped to keep my Tasks, but the Task Scheduler gave me this error for each of my Tasks I had with Windows 7.

The discussions in this question and other resources pointed me to one location on disk (C:\Windows\System32\Tasks) and one location in the registry (HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Schedule\TaskCache\Tree). My Tasks existed in both and did not have any visible errors or corruption.

I noticed that the Task files in the Tasks folder contained simple XML data, so I created backups of all of the files in the Tasks folder and the TaskCache\Tree Registry key, then deleted all of the entries in the TaskCache\Tree key corresponding to the errors that Task Scheduler showed. After I deleted the Registry keys, I imported the files from the Tasks folder through the Task Scheduler interface (Action > Import Task...) and successfully restored my tasks.

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  • I ended up deleting TaskCache\Tasks and TaskCache\Tree (not jsut the contents). Task Scheduler could not start and I did not have the appropriate permissions to recreate the Tasks and Tree keys and I was not allowed to import my backups. The solution was to reboot my computer. The start up process remade those keys and remade the default Windows tasks. Now I can reimport my non-system tasks. – Brad Apr 16 '16 at 20:06
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Windows 7 also stores tasks in the registry, so delete tasks from both C:\Windows\System32\Tasks and HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Schedule\TaskCache\Tree

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2

Defrag seems to be a frequent culprit. In Task Scheduler, try navigating to /Task Scheduler Library / Microsoft / Windows / Defrag If you get the error there, delete the file C:\Windows\System32\Tasks\Microsoft\Windows\Defrag\ScheduledDefrag

To replace the errant defrag, click Start, enter "Disk Defragmenter" and select it. Click "Configure schedule" and configure the options as you see fit. Some people have reported problems with Monthly schedules, so I'd avoid that.

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2

My system specifically was plagued with this error:

The selected task "System_Microsoft-Windows-Kernel-Power_41" no longer exists. To see the current tasks, click Refresh.

Here is what the error-message dialog looks like:

enter image description here

The reason this is happening has to do with the Event Viewer Tasks branch in the Task Scheduler Library. Here is what this looks like from the Task Scheduler Windows application (I've highlighted the offending branch):

enter image description here

If this Event Viewer Tasks branch is empty or doesn't have an entry for System_Microsoft-Windows-Kernel-Power_41, then the issue is that the registry thinks there is an entry when in fact there isn't. Gee, thanks for wasting everyone's time, Microsoft. You should provide a "Clean-Up Now" button on the dialog so that the user has an easy way of fixing the underlying issue. (I'm not entirely sure why the issue occurs in the first place--that's a story for another day.)

To solve the problem, follow these steps (a few answers above gave good advice--my answer give a bit more detail and steps you can follow; the usual warnings about editing the registry apply--just be careful!):

  1. Click the Start button on the Windows taskbar.
  2. Type regedt32 and then right-click the regedit32 name that appears and select Run as administrator. This opens the Windows registry editor.
  3. Navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Schedule\TaskCache\Tree.
  4. Scroll to Event Viewer Tasks and expand it. You should see the offending entry, which I've highlighted below:

enter image description here

  1. With that entry highlight, hit the Delete key on your keyboard to delete it (or right-click and delete it).

Now close (if open) and launch the Task Scheduler again. The error message will be gone.

I posted this answer because I found a YouTube video with close to 200,000 hits that had the title "KERNEL POWER EVENT ID 41 Easy solution 2016 - 2017". It advised downloading and installing software that has absolutely NOTHING to do with the problem. That angered me, so I hope my step-by-step solution helps others.

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I've deleted the problem task from C:\Windows\System32\Tasks and the Windows registry tree and problem disappeared.

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  • 3
    Please add some more detail – pun Nov 11 '15 at 13:47
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I believe there is a better way to do this...

today I found the following C# codebase: https://github.com/EsiKhoob/TaskScheduler-HealthCheck

You can compile it as long as you replace the Arabic characters with English ones.

You will not be able to run it directly from Visual Studio but instead you'll have to compile it and visit the release directory and run the exe from an elevated command prompt.

With the following root path HKLM:\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Schedule\TaskCache, it goes through the subkeys of tasks and tree to find the ones that do not match.

The output looks like this:

C:\Users\xxxx\AppData\Local\Temporary Projects\ConsoleApplication1\bin\Release>
ConsoleApplication1.exe
Count of Task enteries under \Tasks:121
Task enteries which exist under \Tasks but not under \Tree:
 \AdobeAAMUpdater-1.0-UCPSAR-ekwon
 \Updater21804.exe
 \WPD\SqmUpload_S-1-5-21-4005597998-2712132867-546259262-3114
 \{27A0050B-31D9-410A-A7E4-C4A804D74C77}
 \GoogleUpdateTaskUserS-1-5-21-4005597998-2712132867-546259262-3612Core1cc721071
91cc32
 \GoogleUpdateTaskUserS-1-5-21-4005597998-2712132867-546259262-3612Core
 \WPD\SqmUpload_S-1-5-21-4005597998-2712132867-546259262-3277
 \Microsoft\Windows\AppID\PolicyConverter
 \GoogleUpdateTaskUserS-1-5-21-4005597998-2712132867-546259262-3612UA
 \OfficeSoftwareProtectionPlatform\SvcRestartTask
 \Remediation\AntimalwareMigrationTask

Task enteries which exist under \Tree but not under \Tasks:
 \Event Viewer Tasks
 \Microsoft\Windows\Customer Experience Improvement Program\OptinNotification
 \Microsoft\Windows\MemoryDiagnostic\MemUsageTask
 \Microsoft\Windows\NetworkAccessProtection\NAPStatus UI
 \Microsoft\Windows\PLA\System\ConvertLogEntries
 \Microsoft\Windows\RAC\RACAgent
 \Microsoft\Windows\RestartManager\{7DFDF897-2C48-4a74-98D5-D0E12B1C8969}
 \Microsoft\Windows\Shell\CrawlStartPages
 \Microsoft\Windows Defender
 \OfficeSoftwareProtectionPlatform
 \Remediation
 \WPD

Registry keys under \Tasks with no information within them (Must be deleted):

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0

I had to delete the key

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE > SOFTWARE > Microsoft > Windows NT > CurrentVersion > Schedule > TaskCache > Tree

in regedit (after exporting all of my tasks). It recreated itself when I opened Task Scheduler again, and then it seems to be working fine after I imported my tasks.

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