Task Scheduler is amazing! Why didn't anyone tell me?

[chazzy2501]

Don't get me wrong I've know about the scheduler since XP but I didn't look at it again in Windows 7!

 

It can now send emails... This is super cool because it can now also trigger upon events in the event log, this means you could get a workstation to email you when a disk event occurs. It can also start when a certain network is available, super useful if you have a program that doesn't deal well with being run before the network is established.

 

Does anyone who realized this 4 years ago, have any cool tasks they deploy to workstations?

 

I've had the same one for 8 years that turns off the PCs at 18:30 but that's it!

[KK20]

Task scheduler can wake PCs up too (from sleep, Im not talking WOL). Obviously your must have your previous "shutdown task" set to sleep not shutdown.

[pete]

Look into event log subscriptions (pick a server you're happy to use as a log server, fire up Event viewer > Subscriptions > Create Subscription) too if you haven't already.

[zag]

I've been using Task Schedualer + Bmail.exe for many years to email me when an administrator logs onto any computer with the machine name and time.

 

Its very useful to track what my technician is doing, and to prevent hacking.

 

\\server1\scripts$\bmail.exe -s internalsmtpserver -t [email protected] -f [email protected] -b "::Logged:: Administrator has just logged on at [%computername%]"

Edited October 24, 2014 by zag

[JSchlackman]

It can now send emails...

 

And that exact feature is deprecated already in Windows 8/Server 2012. However, you can have Task Scheduler run a PowerShell task instead which can send email using the Send-MailMessage command.

 

As well as a task for local admin logons (similar to zag's above, but using PowerShell to send the message), I have a few events scheduled on all my workstations to watch for events indicating when someone logs on with a corrupt user profile. It's a rare occurrence in Windows 8 but is more common in 7, and it's very handy being able to show up to fix the problem before the user ends up saving to the local HD instead of their (missing) redirected Documents folder.

[jamesb]

Task scheduler can wake PCs up too (from sleep, Im not talking WOL). Obviously your must have your previous "shutdown task" set to sleep not shutdown.

 

Task Scheduler can run PowerShell. PowerShell sitting on one of your never-off servers can run the script given here: MS PowerShell: Please explain how this wake-on-LAN script works - Stack Overflow

 

Import MAC addresses from a CSV (populated with https://gallery.technet.microsoft.com/scriptcenter/b780c4e4-e986-40a3-9296-65caadd31211 from a list of names maybe) and you can have task scheduled WoL.