Windows – What Does “Local Computer Resources” Comprise in Task Scheduler

scheduled-taskstask schedulerwindows

In the Windows Task Scheduler, the interface allows me to use a specific user to run the task (General > Security options). Under the Run whether user is logged on or not option, the interface has a checkbox with the text: Do not store password. The task will only have access to local computer resources.

I have been searching for the meaning of "local computer resources", but every site seems to assume the definition. I have an idea about what it means, but my experience with the Task Scheduler leads me to believe that "local computer resources" indicates fewer resources that I thought it did.

Which privileges do I have with the Do not store password option?

Best Answer

My experience indicates that ADS authentication with a remote Domain Server exceeds "local computer resources", so you can't run a task as an ADS username without storing a password. You can of course create a local user on that machine who will be authenticated locally without Task Scheduler storing the password.

However, check out the discussion of "S4U" here: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc722152.aspx

Maybe it's not actually the authentication, but the fact that our ADS users' homedirs are on network servers.

Related Solutions

Windows – Why can’t a Task Scheduler job access a mapped network drive

Mapped drives are a User Interface concept and are not available to background tasks like that. Access the target via UNC and make sure that the user that the task runs as has access to the target.

Windows Task Scheduler – run a task once a day at log on

Run a task once a day at log on

I am trying to set up a schedule task to run an exe exactly once a day.

I am considering writing a batch script that will write out to a file and be able to detect if it's been called before.

Okay, so the below is an example with very basic and simple batch script logic as you stated in the comment may be useful in your case per issues you're facing.

I also will reference another post (at the bottom of this answer) on Task Scheduler with gotcha's, etc. just in case you have further issues with Task Scheduler not working as expected when executing the batch script. Even though the options you pick specifically in the configuration may be different as well as the OS, the gotcha's at this level are likely the same still so take a quick look at that post too if you have trouble with the batch scheduling with Task Scheduler not working as expected.

Basic Script Breakdown

The FOR /F loop creates the YYYYMMDD variable to use for the current date.
The CheckDir is a local drive path or even a UNC path of \\servername\sharename\folder that you will put this small check file with the YYYYMMDD part of it's file name each day.
- Just change the C:\Path or plug in the UNC path to where that needs to point to in your environment
The checkfile is ONLY the name of the file with the %CheckDir%\ in front of it and the %DT% appended to the end of it before the .txt extension. It'll for example give you a final result of C:\Path\VersionBackup_20130202.txt for today as in my example.
- This will essentially check if the file exists for today, if so, end the script, if it does not exist, create it and then run the VersionBackup.exe of whatever it's EXE name is called. This way this thing could be scheduled with Task Scheduler to once once an hour pointing to the batch script and per the batch script logic, it'll only be allowed to run once per day.
The START "" "C:\Path\VersionBackup.exe" just needs to point to full path where the EXE name exist that does the version backup operation.

Batch Script Example

@ECHO ON

:::: SET YYYYMMDD format for date
FOR /F "TOKENS=2-4 DELIMS=/ " %%A IN ("%DATE%") DO SET "DT=%%C%%B%%A"

:SetCheckFile
SET CheckDir=C:\Path
SET checkfile=%CheckDir%\VersionBackup_%DT%.txt
IF NOT EXIST "%CheckDir%" MD "%CheckDir%"
IF EXIST "%checkfile%" GOTO EOF
ECHO Creating the check file for date %DT% to ensure only one Version Backup run for the day>>"%checkfile%"

:StartApp
START "" "C:\Path\VersionBackup.exe"
GOTO EOF

TASK SCHEDULER SCHEDULED BATCH SCRIPT NOT RUNNING CHECK

Best Answer

Related Solutions

Windows – Why can’t a Task Scheduler job access a mapped network drive

Windows Task Scheduler – run a task once a day at log on

Batch Script Example

Related Question