Windows – Using Task Scheduler to Run a Task Before Shutdown

scheduled-taskssyncsynctoytask schedulerwindows 7

As of writing, the only options available are to "Begin the task":

On a schedule
At logon
At startup
On idle
On an event
At task modification/creation
On connect to user session
On disconnect from user session
On workstation lock
On workstation unlock

Is there a way to have Task Scheduler run a task before shutdown?

Best Answer

Even though this is an older thread, I'd like to add a solution I devised that works well.

I wanted to run a script or batch file whenever a shutdown or restart was initiated, but I didn't want to use Group Policies Shutdown Scripts function. The reason for this was pretty in depth, but I basically needed to run a script before certain services were closed.

I ended up creating a scheduled task as follows:

Type : On Event (Basic)
Log : System
Source : User32
EventID : 1074

When a user or command initiates a shutdown or restart as a logged on user or on a user's behalf, event ID 1074 will fire. By creating a task to use this to trigger a script, it will start the script and allow it to finish, however it will only report the task as "running" or "triggered" in the logs. I have not used this with a long script, so it may be worth testing further, but it works great for short scripts.

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Check the Teamviewer options... Security > Windows Login. Mine is set for Administrators Only (I run from an administrator account), but you can also select all users.

The resultant behavior is that I can connect to my machine regardless of whether it is sitting at the initial login screen, at the desktop, or at the lock screen. I can then log in/unlock interactively just like I'm sitting at my desk.

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

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