Automate Tasks on Windows 10 Using Task Scheduler

We are about to know one of the most popular and useful automated technology of present time called Windows Task Scheduler. However, this feature exists almost from the commencement of Windows operating systems.

 Although the present version of Windows 10 has a way superior version of the Task Scheduler and it has way better capability of many different types of works without less hassle. The automation of different basic types of jobs or even some advanced works has widened the utility or usefulness of this operating system among all the users of Windows 10. However, this cutting edge technology also has its own type of advantages, along with some minor disadvantages.

In this article, we will get essentially A to Z of Windows Task Scheduler. However, some advanced operations we haven’t mentioned in this article. After going through this entire article, you will definitely get a proper and lucid idea of Windows Task Scheduler, and you could also save many precious moments what you west after all the tedious and time consuming unproductive works, like defragment….

What is the Essence of Windows Task Scheduler?

The evolution of various Windows operating systems has already gone through a comprehensive path. Thus, it got little heavy with a plethora of functionalities and software, which is one of the major reasons behind slowing down the overall speed and efficiency of Windows operating systems.

So that it is essential to maintain proper system hygiene on a regular and routine manner, likewise, after extensive amount of usages we often see that windows also get slow because of unnecessary old cash, cookie or even temporary files, thereby we can also cleanup all of these files on a fixed interval to maintain a proper health of the overall system. Beneath, we have mentioned some works which could be done by Windows 10 Task Scheduler without any hassle.

1. We can use this application to maintain a proper system speed, like it can defrag the system only with an automated script file regularly.
2. It can also delete all the old and unimportant files, stored on the desktop to maximize the disk space and also boost the speed of the system you have.
3. You can also check the health of your system systematically so that it could fix all the disk errors without any intervention from your side.
4. Task automation through Task Scheduler also could be very useful in the segment of deleting old unnecessary files of your hard drive.
5. This program also can be used to clean up the recycle bin of your computer at a regular interval.
6. If you want to take back up of any crucial file or any data of your computer, even you can take a complete backup of your entire system file with this application, without much effort.
7.  And, last but not the least we can actually simply turn off the system with the help of this application, and this might be very effective for many commercial desktop users.

Advantages and disadvantages

There are tons of benefits to this application. However, we didn’t find any major disadvantage of this application, though if your system is not sound enough to handle so many tasks at a stretch or multitasking, then it might get freeze while performing scheduled tasks. Thereby, it is suggested that please put automated functions up to a limit, so that it could perform seamlessly on the background even if you are working on the interface.  

Launching Windows Task Scheduler

Without further fuss, let’s dig into the real process and start the Windows Task Scheduler with some simple steps. There are several different process of opening this utility software, but in today’s article, we are going to discuss only one and the most prevalent process of launching this application.

Step one: Open the start button, placed on the bottom left corner of the desktop, or you can simply press the Windows key of the keyboard.

Step two: then type on the search bar, Task Scheduler, and press enter, or you can even click on it.

Only following these two simple steps, you will be able to start the program on the Windows 10 operating system. Aftermath, of opening, we can set some basic tasks on the application again by following some simple steps.

However, the process of setting some tasks might be different for different types of tasks. Below, we have mentioned the most common and easy process of scheduling a task using the default Task Scheduler of Windows 10.

Step 1: Once you successfully open the Windows Task Scheduler using the previously mentioned process, you can see a functionality header on the top of the App interface. From there, you have to click on the option called Action.     

Step 2: A dropdown will appear from there, and there you will have to click on to the option called Create basic task.

Step 3: Subsequently, you will get to see a different interface called ‘Create a basic task’. On the newly appeared interface, you can see a field for ‘Name’ and another field called ‘Description’. The name field is mandatory. However, you can fill the description field, or you can even left that. Then press next to move further.

Step 4: Now, you will be redirected to ‘Trigger’ segment of this interface, and from here, you can actually select the task interval, and after selecting any interval as per your requirement, you just have to press the next button again.

Step 5: Now, you have to put the specific time and date of that trigger you want to happen. So, first, you have to click on the calendar and select the actual starting date of the event, and then you also have to provide the exact time when the operating system will perform the task.

Step 6: After pressing next, an interface asking the purpose of the task you want to set. There will be three different types of tasks that you can select like you can categorize this task as a simple program launcher, or you can even categories your task as an automated email sending operation. Under, we have mentioned each of the categories of tasks. After choosing any of then, you will be redirected to a different interface, and for some obvious reasons, each of the interfaces will have different options and fields to fill and choose to perform the task.

1. Start a program: Once you select this option and press next, you will be redirected to the further interface where you get to see a program or script selector. Using this program browser, you can set your desired program or action as a scheduled task.

Further, you can set any argument on the Add Arguments field, or you can simply avoid this, and the net Start in both the fields as these fields are not mandatory.

• Send an e-mail: If you select the radio button of ‘Send an e-mail’ and press next, then you will get to see an interface for emailing, and from there, you can schedule emails as per your requirement. On this interface, you will get to see from, to, subject, text, attachment, and SMTP server name fields where you have to provide all the needful details to send the mail to the right address. After providing all the required information press next, then you will be redirected to the summary page of this present action, and there it will ask you again for the properties option like before. However, you can simply avoid this section and press on the finish button to register this action.
• Display a message: Last but not the least, the third category of task will help you to show a custom message on the desktop interface. Just select the radio of ‘Display a message’ and press the next button. After that, you can provide a name of this message on the name field, and then on the message field, you can type the entire message. Then press next, and likewise, all the above two mentioned actions will also showcase you a summary of your scheduled action. Review the fields properly here. If you find anything worn, then by pressing back option, you can go back to the previous pages and edit anything you desire.      

Step 7: after following any of the above-mentioned tasks, you have to press or click the next button again, and here lastly, it will show you a summary of all the previously selected options and fields. The only action you can perform here is that you can choose to select the option caller ‘Open the properties dialog for this task when I click Finish’.You can also avoid this step if you do not want to face the task properties window.

Advanced task Scheduling

Above we already mentioned the process of creating a basic task on Windows Task Scheduler. Now, we are going to elaborate the process of creation of advanced and more complex task scheduling. However, this process will require some advanced knowledge of Windows operating system and also it will require some internet surfing skill so that you could resolve any issue during the entire process with the help of internet. To set an advanced task, you will have to follow these steps below.

1. On the left-hand side of the interface, you will see ‘Task Scheduler (Local)’, and under this, you will find “Task Scheduler Library” branch, just right-click on it and select the New Folder option.
2. A box will appear on the screen, and you have to type a name for the folder on the field, like, ‘TheFirstAdvancedTask’. Though this is not mandatory, we will do this to keep our task library clean.
3. Now you have to press the Ok button.
4. After this, you will have to expand the “Task Scheduler Library” section, and from there, select the MyTasks folder.
5. Now again, move to the option header, and there you will be able to see an Action menu, click on it.
6. A dropdown will appear after clicking on it, select the Create Task option from there.
7. Again a ‘Name’ field will be there, and there you have to type a short descriptive name for the task—for example, PowerShell First Script.
8. Next, in the “Description” field, create a brief description of the task, so that you could understand the purpose of this task at any time. However, this section is not mandatory.
9. In the “Security options” section, there will be two different options or radio buttons, and there you can choose and configure anything as per your requirement. From this section, you can even choose the specific account by which you want to operate. However, if you are using an administrative privileged account, the default user should be fine then. Otherwise, you can select the Run whether user is logged on or not radio button if you’re running a Command Prompt or PowerShell command to prevent the command. As per the demand of the task you can choose to tick the Run with highest privileges option.
10. Furthermore, there will be two more options one is ‘Hidden’ and another one is ‘Configure for’. Using the first one, you can hide the task at runtime and using the next option you have to choose the operating system version, however the ‘Configure for ‘settings should be left alone until you are required to use a different compatibility option.
11. Now move to the header again and from there click on the next tab called ‘trigger’.
12. Click on the ‘New’ button to create a new trigger.
13. At the very first of the interface you will see an option called “Begin the task” drop-down menu to select a trigger as per your demand, the dropdown have verity of task categories like, “On a schedule,” “At startup,” “On workstation unlock,” and many others. In this article we will use the ‘On a schedule’ option for the demonstration purpose.
14. Using the “Start” settings, you can actually specify when the task should begin and the exact time of action.
15. On the left-hand side, you can see the interval of occurrences. You can select any of them; however, in this article, we will use the ‘Monthly’ option for demonstration.
16. Mention the “Months” from the drop-down menu to select the months that the task will.
17. You can even use the “Days” or “On” drop-down menu to specify the exact days that the task will run.
18. After fixing all the date and time-related fields now, we have ‘Advanced Settings’, and using this section we can actually delay, repeat, stop, and expire a task. Under a ‘Enabled’ options is placed, and by default, it is always checked.
19. Now finally, we have to click the ‘Ok’ button.
20. Now moving to the next ‘Action’ tab.
21. Again we have to click here the ‘New’ button.
22. Likewise, the basic task it has also three types of actions, and you have to select any of them, however now we will select the ‘Start a program’ option. Nonetheless, you can use any of the ‘Send an e-mail’ or ‘Display a message’ options.
23. Here under the ‘Settings’ section, we will see a browser called ‘Program/script’ to route or select the actual program or file you want to schedule for automation. For example: defrag.exe. However, you can simply right the path if you know the exact location.

Likewise, previously mentioned task scheduling program, this advanced task scheduling option also has both ‘Add arguments’ and ‘Start in’ options. However, these options are again optional.

• Now finally, click the ‘OK’ button.
• After that, click on the the next Conditions tab from the header. However, the “Conditions” tab has settings that work alongside the “Triggers” settings to regulate when the task should run. However, generally, you actually do not need to modify any of the settings of this segment, but if you really have less memory in your computer then you should tick the option ‘Start the task only if the computer is idle for’. Further, if you are using your laptop for this task scheduling, then you might want to check both the option caller ‘Start the task only if the computer is on AC power’ , ‘Stop if the computer switches to battery power’, because it will help the laptop to supply enough and required power to the hardware. Although, if you are performing this from the desktop, then these options are optional, as your computer is always connected with AC power in this case.   
• Further, you can also ensure network connectivity here.
• Lastly, click the ‘Ok’ button to verify the task.
• Now we will move to the last tab called ‘Settings’.
• This tab called ‘Settings’ has all the controls to change or modify the characteristic of a task. Options of this tab will definitely add some extra command to the tasks, although any of them is not a mandatory task. You can just have a look on these options and decide if any of them is required. Under, we have mentioned all the options of this tab
  • Allow task to be run on demand
  • Run the task as soon as possible after a scheduled start is missed.
  • If the task fails, restart every.
  • Stop the task if it runs longer than
  • If the running task does not end when requested, force it to stop.
• Finally, click on the Ok button to finish this schedule.

After following all the above-mentioned steps, the task shall be created by the scheduler, and it will run automatically as per the mentioned date and time of the task. However, there are several other functionalities are there regarding this task scheduling program. Under we also have mentioned some of the most popular and useful tasks which could be done by this program.

How to edit or delete any created task

After successful creation of any level of task, you will get to see all the created tasks on the body part of the interface. You can just right-click on any of them, and thereby, you will get to see a list of options like run, edit, disable, export, properties, and delete. Once you press the ‘Run’ option, it will automatically start that specific action.

Likewise, if you click on to the ‘end’ or ‘disable’, in both the case, it will stop the task temporarily or permanently. However, you can go one step further and delete any task using the same process. To edit or modify any action, you actually have to go to the properties option of a task, and from there, you will be able to modify each of the parameters you set before, at the time of creation.

Conclusion

The prevalence of automation is undeniable and undoubtedly pivotal at the running stage of the civilization. We want to become more effective and productive. Also, we know that the span of the entire life stands nowhere. Thus we have managed and finish more tasks within less time to become that efficient.

Thereby, we should use automation almost in every aspect of life. Windows 10 brought us a plethora of amenities, and among them, Windows Task Scheduler is one of the most important feature it contains. We have already seen how this could be so much productive and crucial in terms of commercial or even personal computing. This feature actually could really maintain your computer without your continuous surveillance.  

However, the optimum utilization of this feature of windows is not possible without a proper knowledge of computer. In fact, this Windows Task Scheduler is not actually everyone’s cup of tea, because you need some basic understanding of command prompts or programming to set advanced level automated tasks. Although, you can just start with the basic tasks if you do not have any need for any advanced level operation, and with time, you will surely get command over this application.