CMD command (not a application/script) as a action in schtasks

Question

Hello everyone!

Is it possible to release CMD command (but not as a aplication or script) straight away from task scheduler, like (or similiar):

"schtasks /create /sc DAILY /mo 1 /st Time.Value /tn Backup_name /tr " +

and instead of providing application name, to include another cmd command, like:

"xcopy \rawdata \reports /u"

and as a whole:

schtasks /create /sc DAILY /mo 1 /st Time.Value /tn Backup_name /tr xcopy \rawdata \reports /u

Answer 1

"Xcopy" is not a "cmd command", it is a program, C:\Windows\System32\xcopy.exe. "Dir" is a "cmd command". You can use where.exe to search the system path folders for an executable name.

C:\>where xcopy
C:\Windows\System32\xcopy.exe

C:\>where dir
INFO: Could not find files for the given pattern(s).

C:\>where where
C:\Windows\System32\where.exe

You can schedule xcopy because it is a program. You have to use quotes for the /tr value to be able to pass arguments to the program.

schtasks /create /sc DAILY /mo 1 /st Time.Value /tn Backup_name /tr "xcopy.exe c:\rawdata c:\reports /u"

You cannot schedule "dir" by itself because it is a "cmd command"

schtasks /create /sc DAILY /mo 1 /st Time.Value /tn Backup_name /tr "cmd.exe /c dir > C:\temp\DirOutput.txt"