How can I enable a task created using PowerShell's Register-ScheduledTask to be deleted If the task is not scheduled to run again? As in New-JobTrigger -Once -At $ScheduledTime
The option is seen in the Task Scheduler GUI > Task Properties > Settings tab > The last checkbox option reads:
If the task is not scheduled to run again, delete it after: <time period>
MS TechNet article Searching for enabling this option using PowerShell does not turn up any relevant results, mostly how to enable tasks and so on.
You should use a New-ScheduledTaskSettingsSet like
New-ScheduledTaskSettingsSet -DeleteExpiredTaskAfter <TimeSpan>
$STSet = New-ScheduledTaskSettingsSet -DeleteExpiredTaskAfter <TimeSpan>
Register-ScheduledTask mytask -Action <actionobject> -Settings $STSet
Related
I am trying to achieve the following settings (select "If the task is already running, then the following rule applies") through PowerShell script but unable to get appropriate settings to configure that.
I am using the following code to configure that
$Trigger = New-ScheduledTaskTrigger -At 07:00am -Daily
$Settings = New-ScheduledTaskSettingsSet -ExecutionTimeLimit (New-TimeSpan -Hour 1) -Compatibility Win7 -StartWhenAvailable -Priority 7
$User = "SYSTEM"
$Action = New-ScheduledTaskAction -Execute "some script" -Argument "some argument" -WorkingDirectory "working dir"
Register-ScheduledTask -TaskName "Test Task" -Trigger $Trigger -User $User -Action $Action -Settings $Settings -RunLevel Highest –Force
To do the advanced configuration for the triggers
$Task = Get-ScheduledTask -TaskName "Example Task"
$Task.Triggers[0].ExecutionTimeLimit = "PT10M"
$Task | Set-ScheduledTask -User $User
The setting is configured via New-ScheduledTaskSettingsSet and the parameter you're looking for is -MultipleInstances:
-MultipleInstances
Specifies the policy that defines how Task Scheduler handles multiple instances of the task. The acceptable values for this parameter are:
IgnoreNew. The new task instance is ignored. Parallel. The new task instance starts immediately. Queue. The new task instance starts as soon as the current instance completes.
Type: MultipleInstancesEnum
Accepted values: Parallel, Queue, IgnoreNew
Position: Named
Default value: None
However, the documentation lists only 3 values, and the respective enum (at least at the time of this writing also only has the listed 3 values:
Parallel → Run a new instance in parallel
Queue → Queue a new instance
IgnoreNew → Do not start a new instance
If you create a task manually via the GUI and select the setting "Stop the existing instance" the value .Settings.MultipleInstances is empty, but if you create a Settings object via New-ScheduledTaskSettingsSet omitting the parameter -MultipleInstances it defaults to IgnoreNew. Attempts to change that to an empty value result in validation errors.
This is obviously a bug (missing value in the referenced enum).
The enum now contains 'StopExisting'.
This is my solution in C#.
static void RegisterMyTask(string taskPath, string remoteServer)
{
try
{
using TaskService ts = new(remoteServer);
TaskDefinition taskDef = ts.NewTask();
taskDef.Settings.MultipleInstances = TaskInstancesPolicy.StopExisting;
...
However PowerShell probably has the new enum as well. As I would guess:
-MultipleInstances StopExisting
I had a task scheduled on multiple remote servers.
On day 1 it started running.
Day 2 it failed to start a new instance, but didn't kill the existing instance
Day 3 it failed to start a new instance, but didn't kill the existing instance. Then 30 seconds later, the existing instance was killed by the day 1 timeout setting, but the new instance had already failed for the day.
This fixed my problem.
I'm trying to create a Scheduled Task with the following Trigger:
- Startup
- Run every 5 minutes
- Run indefinitely
In the GUI I can do this easily by selecting:
- Begin the task: at startup
And in the Advanced tab:
- Repeat task every: 5 minutes
- For a duration of: indefinitely
But I'm having trouble doing it with Powershell.
My troubled code:
$repeat = (New-TimeSpan -Minutes 5)
$duration = ([timeSpan]::maxvalue)
$trigger = New-ScheduledTaskTrigger -AtStartup -RepetitionInterval $repeat -RepetitionDuration $duration
It won't take the RepetitionInterval and RepetitionDuration parameters. But I need that functionality.
How could I accomplish my goal?
To set the task literally with a "Startup" trigger and a repetition, it seems you have to reach in to COM (or use the TaskScheduler UI, obviously..).
# Create the task as normal
$action = New-ScheduledTaskAction -Execute "myApp.exe"
Register-ScheduledTask -Action $action -TaskName "My Task" -Description "Data import Task" -User $username -Password $password
# Now add a special trigger to it with COM API.
# Get the service and task
$ts = New-Object -ComObject Schedule.Service
$ts.Connect()
$task = $ts.GetFolder("\").GetTask("My Task").Definition
# Create the trigger
$TRIGGER_TYPE_STARTUP=8
$startTrigger=$task.Triggers.Create($TRIGGER_TYPE_STARTUP)
$startTrigger.Enabled=$true
$startTrigger.Repetition.Interval="PT10M" # ten minutes
$startTrigger.Repetition.StopAtDurationEnd=$false # on to infinity
$startTrigger.Id="StartupTrigger"
# Re-save the task in place.
$TASK_CREATE_OR_UPDATE=6
$TASK_LOGIN_PASSWORD=1
$ts.GetFolder("\").RegisterTaskDefinition("My Task", $task, $TASK_CREATE_OR_UPDATE, $username, $password, $TASK_LOGIN_PASSWORD)
New-ScheduledTaskTrigger uses parameter sets. When you specify that you want the scheduled task to start up "at logon" you are restricting yourself to the following parameter set:
Parameter Set: AtStartup
New-ScheduledTaskTrigger [-AtStartup] [-RandomDelay <TimeSpan> ] [ <CommonParameters>]
What may be more beneficial is if you use your "at startup" scheduled task to register a new scheduled task to run every five minutes using the "once" parameter set:
Parameter Set: Once
New-ScheduledTaskTrigger [-Once] -At <DateTime> [-RandomDelay <TimeSpan> ] [-RepetitionDuration <TimeSpan> ] [-RepetitionInterval <TimeSpan> ] [ <CommonParameters>]
Your Scheduled Task Trigger should successfully be assigned once you are using the correct parameter set.
See my answer here: https://stackoverflow.com/a/61646465/2943191
It is actually relatively simple, once a working example is written, of course.
Instead of -AtLogOn use -AtStartup.
For what it’s worth, I too ran into this issue as I was particularly perturbed that this functionality was pulled from PowerShell for -AtStartup. However, upon further review, the same functionality can be performed by just be using -Once and configuring it to repeat. In the OP’s case of having this run every five minutes, it probably won’t make a difference if this is run at startup or five minutes thereafter.
I have confirmed this with -Once and then configuring it to repeat. It will also perform the repeats when the system is restarted. This is somewhat different from #BryceMcDonald’s answer in that you don’t need to create two triggers—just create the -Once one and you’ll be good to go.
Following https://stackoverflow.com/a/32732879/1378356, I can get a scheduled task's trigger using this syntax:
$task = Get-ScheduledTask -TaskName "SomeTaskName"
$taskTrigger = $task.Triggers[0]
$taskTrigger
But how do I see the friendly name (which is displayed in the Task Scheduler UI), such as "At 8:00 am every Monday"?
I have already searched this site and also done a good amount of googling and I am unable to find a why to do this.
I want to be able to update the action/s on a scheduled task using PS 4.0.
I don't mind if it means an action to delete the current Action and adding a new one.
Does anyone know if this is possible?
You can use the following to replace the current action with a new action object in a scheduled task.
$Action = New-ScheduledTaskAction -Execute "PowerShell.exe"
Set-ScheduledTask -TaskName "YourTaskName" -Action $Action
This will set a new action to run powershell.exe in a scheduled task.
I'm currently automating the creation of scheduled tasks via Powershell, and I'm using the New-ScheduledTaskAction, New-ScheduledTaskTrigger, and Register-ScheduledTask commands. Now, I have a few jobs that need to run under the following conditions :
Run once every Friday
Run once on the 1st of every month
Run once on the 10th day of every month
While the technet documentation for the New-ScheduledTaskTrigger command specifies a Daily and Weekly time span parameter, I do not see one for Monthly, which is critical for defining the run times above.
In the few years I've been using Powershell, I can't think of an instance where I could do something via the standard UI interface, that I couldn't accomplish using one of the available commands.
Is this just flat out not available here, or am I missing something?
UPDATE #1
I just stumbled upon this SuperUser question, which does look promising, but references PSV3 instead of PSV4 - going to give it a shot and report back.
As I said in the original post, the SuperUser question above looked promising, but ultimately did not work with PSV4, and the example given in the post was basically a copy\paste job with almost no context.
I realized I could leverage Schtasks.exe from my Powershell script to handle the monthly aggregations, and it's fairly easy to set up, albeit somewhat tedious :
# set the trigger depending on time, span, and day
$runSpan = $task.SpanToRun;
if ($runSpan.Equals("Daily"))
{
$trigger = New-ScheduledTaskTrigger -Daily -At $task.TimeToRun
Register-ScheduledTask -Action $action -Trigger $trigger -TaskName $task.TaskName -User $Username -Password $Password -Description $task.Description
}
if ($runSpan.Equals("Weekly"))
{
$trigger = New-ScheduledTaskTrigger -Weekly -At $task.TimeToRun -DaysOfWeek $task.DayToRun
Register-ScheduledTask -Action $action -Trigger $trigger -TaskName $task.TaskName -User $Username -Password $Password -Description $task.Description
}
# script out SchTasks magic to create the monthly tasks
if ($runSpan.Equals("Monthly"))
{
$taskParams = #("/Create",
"/TN", $task.TaskName,
"/SC", "monthly",
"/D", $task.DayToRun,
"/ST", $task.TimeToRun,
"/TR", $filePath,
"/F", #force
"/RU", $Username,
"/RP", $Password);
# supply the command arguments and execute
#schtasks.exe $taskParams
schtasks.exe #taskParams
}
I'm using an in-script class to keep track of all the task properties ($task.TimeToRun, $task.DayToRun, etc.), iterating over a list of those, applying the Powershell implementation for daily and weekly tasks, then switching to SchTasks.exe for the monthly spans.
One thing I want to note, is that at first glance, I thought setting the user context under which the task runs could be achieved with the U and P arguments, but that is not the case. That specifies the creds that Schtasks.exe runs under - in order to set the user context for the task, you must use RU and RP.
In addition to the link above, these two were also very helpful :
http://coding.pstodulka.com/2015/08/02/programmatically-scheduling-powershell-scripts-in-task-scheduler/
https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/desktop/bb736357(v=vs.85).aspx