Edit

schtasks commands

  • Article

Schedules commands and programs to run periodically or at a specific time, adds and removes tasks from the schedule, starts and stops tasks on demand, and displays and changes scheduled tasks.

Note

The schtasks.exe tool performs the same operations as Scheduled Tasks in Control Panel. You can use these tools together and interchangeably.

Required permissions

  • To schedule, view, and change all tasks on the local computer, you must be a member of the Administrators group.

  • To schedule, view, and change all tasks on the remote computer, you must be a member of the Administrators group on the remote computer, or you must use the /u parameter to provide the credentials of an Administrator of the remote computer.

  • You can use the /u parameter in a /create or /change operation if the local and remote computers are in the same domain, or if the local computer is in a domain that the remote computer domain trusts. Otherwise, the remote computer can't authenticate the user account specified, and it can't verify that the account is a member of the Administrators group.

  • The task you plan to run must have the appropriate permission; these permissions vary by task. By default, tasks run with the permissions of the current user of the local computer, or with the permissions of the user specified by the /u parameter, if one is included. To run a task with permissions of a different user account or with system permissions, use the /ru parameter.

Syntax

schtasks /change
schtasks /create
schtasks /delete
schtasks /end
schtasks /query
schtasks /run

Parameters

Parameter Description
schtasks change Changes one or more of the following properties of a task:
  • The program that the task runs (/tr)
  • The user account under which the task runs (/ru)
  • The password for the user account (/rp)
  • Adds the interactive-only property to the task (/it)
schtasks create Schedules a new task.
schtasks delete Deletes a scheduled task.
schtasks end Stops a program started by a task.
schtasks query Displays tasks scheduled to run on the computer.
schtasks run Starts a scheduled task immediately. The run operation ignores the schedule, but uses the program file location, user account, and password saved in the task to run the task immediately.