How do I create tasks with the same triggers? - powershell

Question

How do I create known tasks with the same triggers, properties, etc. Such as they all start when user logs on. The tasks have definite names such as Task_1, Task_2, Task_3 etc. I dont know how to use the foreach command in powershell.

Answer 1

Tasks can be surprisingly difficult to work with. When I first read your question it sounded like you wanted to copy a trigger from one task to several others. This is crude but you can do something like this:
$Trigger = (Get-ScheduledTask -TaskName "NameOfTheTemplatTask").Triggers[0]
Set-ScheduledTask -TaskName "NameOfDestinationTask" -Trigger $Trigger
Note: you'd have to update the task names.
Given you'r comments on Alex_P's Answer I understand better. You just need to create a trigger, store it in a variable then specify that variable as the argument to the -Triggers parameter on the New-ScheduledTask cmdlet.
$NewAction = New-ScheduledTaskAction -Execute 'C:\windows\system32\notepad.exe'
$NewTrigger = New-ScheduledTaskTrigger -AtLogOn
$NewSchedTAsk = New-ScheduledTask -Trigger $NewTrigger -Action $NewAction
Register-ScheduledTask -TaskName TestTask -TaskPath "\" -Action $NewAction -Trigger $NewTrigger
Obviously this is just an example, and you would need to update with information for your own environment and purposes.
Note: Don't forget Register-ScheduledTask
You could wrap this in a ForEach loop to get as many tasks as you wanted...
$NewAction = New-ScheduledTaskAction -Execute 'C:\windows\system32\notepad.exe'
$NewTrigger = New-ScheduledTaskTrigger -AtLogOn
$Tasks = #('Task_1', 'Task_2', 'Task_3')
ForEach($Task in $Tasks)
{
$NewSchedTAsk = New-ScheduledTask -Trigger $NewTrigger -Action $NewAction
Register-ScheduledTask -TaskName $Task -TaskPath "\" -Action $NewAction -Trigger $NewTrigger
}
Again these are just examples to give you a road map to solving these issues for your own environment.
You should also check out the MS Docs on the scheduledTask module that hosts the discussed cmdlets. You'll find similar examples, better vetted than what I cobbled together on the fly.

Answer 2

I would start with something like this:
$tasks = #('Task_1', 'Task_2', 'Task_3')
$tasks | ForEach-Object {
Start-ScheduledTask -TaskName $_
}
Here is the link for Start-ScheduledTask.

Answer 3

Tasks are just XML files, located in the locations below.
# File system:
Get-ChildItem -Path "$env:windir\Tasks"
# Registry:
Get-ChildItem -Path 'HKLM:\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Schedule\TaskCache\Tasks'
Get-ChildItem -Path 'HKLM:\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Schedule\TaskCache\Tree'
You can copy them elsewhere, edit them and rename them to be used as your template,
or just export from the UI once, or vis cmd.exe or PowerShell, modify as needed and import back in.
The following example commands will export/import a scheduled task. However, make
sure to update the command...
"\TASK-PATH-TASKSCHEDULER\TASK-NAME," "%UserProfile%\EXPORT-FOLDER-PATH\TASK-EXPORT-NAME.xml
...with your device details.
schtasks /query /xml /tn "\TASK-PATH-TASKSCHEDULER\TASK-NAME" > "%UserProfile%\EXPORT-FOLDER-PATH\TASK-EXPORT-NAME.xml"
Or with PowerShell
Export-ScheduledTask -TaskName "TASK-NAME" -TaskPath "\TASK-PATH-TASKSCHEDULER\" |
out-file C:\PATH\TO\EXPORT-FOLDER\TASK-EXPORT-NAME.xml
Command to import a scheduled task and press Enter:
schtasks /create /xml "%UserProfile%\IMPORTED-FOLDER-PATH\TASK-INPORT-NAME.xml" /tn "\TASKSCHEDULER-FOLDER-PATH\TASK-INPORT-NAME" /ru "COMPUTER-NAME\USER-NAME"
Or with PowerShell
Register-ScheduledTask -xml (Get-Content 'C:\PATH\TO\IMPORTED-FOLDER-PATH\TASK-INPORT-NAME.xml' |
Out-String) -TaskName "TASK-IMPORT-NAME" -TaskPath "\TASK-PATH-TASKSCHEDULER\" -User COMPUTER-NAME\USER-NAME –Force