Task Scheduler is an awesome tool that every Sys Admin should be familiar with it.
Task
Scheduler in a way can help automate task, if the task is repetitive or a task
that has to be done at a certain date and time, or a task has to be done once a
week, once a month or even once a year. Task Scheduler is the best tool for
this scenario.
In this
busy world of digital technology, who can keep remembering that a task must be
done on a specific date and time. Yes, it might works once but as time goes on and
task or jobs of a Sys Admin keep filing up chances are the task might be
forgotten and the person-in-charge might just remember the things that needs to
be done if there is an issue that happens already.
So, Task Scheduler
is a tool in which you test once, set if tested okay and forget about it. Test to make sure that the task to be set, works properly and just
forgot about it; it will do the task repetitively albeit depends on the
settings that was set.
Of course,
Task Scheduler can also be a good tool for any bad actor. Since it can be used
to run a malicious task; a bad actor can used it to run a certain application
and run it automatically to control or collect data on the computer at a
specified date and time.
In this
regard, it’s also a good thing to list what things are set on the Task
Scheduler.
How to list
all scheduled Task set on Task Scheduler?
Of course, we can always use the GUI and check it one by one. Command line can also be used an export the data on Task Scheduler and export it to a file for later analysis, or basically collect all the data and examine later.
Or used the data as a based file and compare it later to
check what has changed or what has been added. It’s a good thing to know what’s
going on in the system.
Here’s the command
to list all Task via command line:
schtasks /query /fo LIST /v > c:\temp\allTask.txt
schtasks
/query /fo CSV /v > c:\temp\allTask.csv
Above
command will list detailed settings of the Task Scheduler and has a lot of
data.
To filter
only, “Enabled” Task use this command:
schtasks /query /fo LIST /v | FINDSTR “TaskName Enabled"
Example output:
TaskName: \Microsoft\Windows\Subscription\EnableLicenseAcquisition
Scheduled
Task State: Enabled
TaskName:
\Microsoft\Windows\Subscription\LicenseAcquisition
TaskName: \Microsoft\Windows\Subscription\LicenseAcquisition
TaskName:
\Microsoft\Windows\Subscription\LicenseAcquisition
TaskName:
\Microsoft\Windows\Sysmain\HybridDriveCachePrepopulate
TaskName: \Microsoft\Windows\Sysmain\HybridDriveCacheRebalance
TaskName:
\Microsoft\Windows\Sysmain\ResPriStaticDbSync
Scheduled
Task State: Enabled
TaskName:
\Microsoft\Windows\Sysmain\WsSwapAssessmentTask
Scheduled
Task State: Enabled
TaskName:
\Microsoft\Windows\SystemRestore\SR
Scheduled
Task State: Enabled
TaskName:
\Microsoft\Windows\Task Manager\Interactive
Scheduled
Task State: Enabled
To query a single Task and check “Last Run Time “ and “Last Run Result” to know
whether the task has run successfully or not, use this command:
schtasks /query /TN "\Microsoft\Windows\Work Folders\Work Folders
Maintenance Work" /fo LIST /v | FINDSTR
"Last Run Time Last Result"
Sample
output:
Next Run
Time: N/A
Last Run
Time: 27/8/2020
4:55:41 PM
Last
Result: 0
Task To
Run: COM handler
Idle
Time: Disabled
Run As
User:
INTERACTIVE
Stop Task
If Runs X Hours and X Mins: 24:00:00
Start
Time: N/A
Repeat:
Until: Time: N/A
Repeat:
Stop If Still Running: N/A
If "Last Result" is equals to "zero" then the Task has run successfully, if the result is not "zero" or "0" then the task has to be checked or there is a problem on the scheduled Task.
To show all
the details for a single task the just omit the pipe option:
schtasks
/query /TN "\Microsoft\Windows\Work Folders\Work Folders Maintenance
Work" /fo LIST /v
To use the command line in PowerShell, add the ampersand or "&" before the command line.
Example:
& schtasks /query /fo LIST /v > c:\temp\allTask.txt
& schtasks /query /fo CSV /v > c:\temp\allTask.csv
& schtasks /query /fo LIST /v | FINDSTR “TaskName Enabled" > c:\temp\enabledTask.txt
& schtasks /query /TN "\Microsoft\Windows\Work Folders\Work Folders Maintenance Work" /fo LIST /v | FINDSTR "Last Run Time Last Result" > c:\temp\TaskResult.txt
Cheers...till next time. Stay safe and keep praying that this pandemic will end.
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