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Schedule A Task In Windows 8 (the easy way)

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Open the Task Scheduler Snapin with Administrator Privileges

  1. Hold down the Windows Key and hit R
  2. Type ‘mmc’ in the open field and hit okay
  3. Click ‘yes’ on the User Account Control security prompt
  4. Click File > Add/Remove Snap-in
  5. Scroll to the bottom of the list of available snap-ins.
  6. Click Task Schedule then click Add
  7. Choose local computer and hit OK
  8. Hit OK again
  9. Click Task Scheduler (Local) in the left-side snap-in tree.

Now you can either click ‘Create Basic Task’ or ‘Create Task’ under the right side ‘Actions’ menu

Create Basic Task: Gives you a wizard which is easiest if you are less of a power user or want to be walked through the process.

Create Task: Gives you more advanced options and doesn’t hold your hand through the process.

Here is the end of the Basic Task Process:

Schedule PowerShell Task

Powershell scripts can’t be automatically executed by Tasks alone.  They have to be executed by powershell.exe with arguments which run the script.

  1. Open the ‘Action’ tab of the task
  2. Click ‘Edit’
  3. Type powershell as the Program/Script (yes it does say script but don’t actually put a script there.)
  4. for the arguments, type (including quotes) -command “& C:\path\to\script.ps1” NOTE: I’m having trouble if there are spaces in the script path. The normal tricks aren’t working.  Best to avoid spaces altogether.
  5. Click okay

Expire Task Automatically

If you want the task to expire automatically — I do because I don’t want this thing to run forever — Make sure ‘open the properties dialog’ checkbox is checked from the wizard.  Then click finish

If you went the advanced route, start here:

  1. Click the triggers tab
  2. Click the first trigger in the list (ie the one which says how often your task runs) There should only be one.  Mine says weekly.
  3. Check the box next to expire
  4. Set the time/date
  5. Click OK

Check on the task

  1. To check on your task, perform steps 1-8 to open the task scheduler
  2. Expand the tree under task scheduler — click the arrow to the left of ‘Task Scheduler (Local)’
  3. Click Task Scheduler Library
  4. Click the ‘History’ tab below
  5. You’re looking for a line which says ‘Action completed’
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