The forsaken world of Windows Task Scheduler

2 days ago

The author shares their experience with Windows Task Scheduler while setting up a backup script.
Initial issues included a script failure due to an exit code override by `findstr`.
Network share accessibility problems arose when the task was set to run without the user being logged in.
Microsoft account passwordless security conflicted with Task Scheduler's requirement for a stored password.
Creating a local account and adjusting Group Policy was necessary to schedule tasks successfully.
The deprecated status of Task Scheduler's failure notification mechanism led to a custom solution using Home Assistant.
Enabling Task Scheduler failure logging revealed numerous unrelated task failures across the system.
Many failing tasks were due to unregistered COM components, despite the DLLs being present.
Deleting task files directly led to further errors, requiring registry edits to fully remove tasks.
The author concludes that Task Scheduler is underrated and deserves better polish and attention.

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