Windows pausing service instead of restarting it when batch file called from task scheduler

batchscheduled-taskstask schedulerwindowswindows 7

I have set up a task in Windows Task Scheduler to run at a specific time each day. The task simply executes a batch file I've created to restart my Windows service. This is the contents of that file:

net stop "MyService"
net start "MyService"

This seems to work well for the most part, but occasionally the service will actually pause itself, rather than stop/start. I will come back to it later on and it will just be sitting there, paused.

Why would task scheduler pause my service, rather than start it, and how can I remedy that?

Best Answer

EXE's converted to a services by utilities like NSSM are fraught with chances of failure.

Even NSSM points this out on their home page:

"...if your application is well-behaved you can configure nssm to absolve all responsibility for restarting it and let Windows take care of recovery actions."

Sounds like your application is not "well behaved".

Either try using NSSM to stop/start and restart the service, or if that doesn't help, rewrite/recompile the program as an actual Windows service.

Related Solutions

Windows – How to import a scheduled task from an XML file

When you open Task Scheduler on the new computer, click on "Import Task..." in the Actions list on the right-hand side of the window:

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Select the XML file and click "Open", then review the parameters in the "Create Task" window that opens, and click "OK".

If you need to do this programmatically, you can use schtasks.exe. The following code should import the XML file and create a new task automatically:

schtasks.exe /Create /XML task.xml /tn taskname

Just replace "task.xml" with the path to your XML file, after it's been copied to the correct location, and replace "taskname" with whatever name you want it to appear as in Task Scheduler.

Windows – Make executing CMD window show when it is ran by a task scheduler

Run a Scheduled Task Interactively

Simply check the Run only when user is logged on from the General tab and Security options section to ensure the process is run visibly/interactively with the logged on session.

Since you say "The user account under which the task runs is always logged on" and the expected result is for the screen to be visible when the Task Scheduler job executes the process, then you only need to make that simple adjustment to get the expected result.

Further Resources

Task Security Context
- To make a task run interactively, select the Run only when user is logged on radio button.