[TDP 3.3] Windows 7 - Scheduled Tasks

Toad Data Point
1

As you may or may not know, the handling of Scheduled Tasks in Windows 7 (and server 2008/R2, if that’s your thing) is vastly different from that of Windows XP (and Server 2003). For example, wheras in Windows XP if you needed to move tasks from one machine to another, you could simply copy the appropriate .job file from C:\Windows\Tasks on one machine to another (and of course verify all paths were still correct), you cannot actually copy the .job file from Windows XP to Windows 7.

That said, that’s not the issue that we’re having. We’re in the process (finally!) of validating TDP Automations under Windows 7. The scripts work just fine when run manually from within TDP, but we’re having some issues getting them to run on unattended user sessions with our NT Service Account.

The first task I tried worked just fine - a simple “Select to File and then Email” task - but only so long as the NT Service Account was logged in to the host machine. Even with the option of “Run whether user is logged on or not”, the task will not execute if the NT Service Account isn’t logged in locally (Error message from the Windows Event Viewer: “Task Scheduler did not launch task “” because user “DOMAIN\SERVICE ACCT” was not logged on when the launching conditions were met. User Action: Ensure user is logged on or change the task definition to allow launching when user is logged off.”) - it’s not really surprising that Windows contradicts itself here.

Most Google searches to various items related to this return information about scheduled tasks that were created with Group Policies (not applicable here), the user in question not having the permission to “Log on as Batch Job” (Local Windows Administrators group has this right by default; NT Service Account is in the Local Admin Group via a Domain Group, and has the permission explicitly defined - no dice). I’ve reviewed a bunch of items and I’m not getting anywhere.

So, has anyone else encountered this issue? If so, were you able to work around the problem?

We don’t have a choice on going to Windows 7 - Windows XP has reach EOL even with Enterprise Support Agreements, so we’re basically being forced. We have some time, but not much.

2

Could you please clarify if you are trying to schedule the automation task in local machine or another one on network? Is it Windows 7 or Windows Server? Do it work when you schedule it using your own userid?

3

Hi Kiki,

  1. Technically it’s local, as it’s sitting on my desk, but it’s headless so I have to use Remote Desktop to connect.

  2. Windows 7 32bit Enterprise Edition.

  3. Yes - but only if my ID stays logged into that machine. The RDP session can be in a “disconnected” status (ie. I closed the RDP window, but didn’t log out first) and the automation will work. But it will not work with any ID if that ID isn’t logged in.

Windows XP did not have this issue - when you supplied the credentials to the ID, Windows would execute the job under those credentials whether or not there was a local logon session.

Both my NT ID and the NT ID of the Service account I use on the Windows XP machines have full admin rights to the Windows 7 machine.

4

Any ideas on this? My IT organization is pushing hard to migrate these machines to Windows 7.

5

I don’t really have anything to offer here. We are currently working on a feature to migrate automation tasks from one version of TDP to another. This does not cover your use case of migrating to another pc. But we are running into the same situation and we are still investigating what can be done. I will see if KiKi has anything to offer on this as she is the one working on this.

6

I had issues getting .tas scripts to run also, and after trial and error, got them to run. They run unattended as scheduled, but if I ‘Run’ them interactively, they do run, but they do not show as ‘running’. Also, if they err out, they may not display any error code.