Microsoft has changed the task scheduler pretty drastically since windows XP and it is very hard to get used to. I had a recent issue where I couldn’t tell if my .bat file I use for backups had really run – the bat file is supposed to write to 3 separate log files while running so I can view any problems and verify what it did. Well, the task seemed to run however, the log files were not updating. After investigating I found that the following steps should be carefully run through when creating a task in 2008:
• Make sure that the task is set to "configure for Windows Vista or Windows 2008" on the first page of the task properties (under the "general" tab)
• Very important when writing to log files --> Make sure that the task is set to "start in" the folder that contains the batch file: open the task properties, click on the "actions" tab, click on the action and then the "edit" button at the bottom. In the "Edit Action" Window there is a field for "start in (optional)" that you set to the path to the batch file.
• Make sure that the task is running as an account that has explicit "Full access" permissions to all these things: The .bat file itself, the folder containing the .bat file, and the target files/folders that are affected by the .bat script.
• Make sure that the account running the task is a member of the local "administrators" group for this machine
• Make sure that the task is set to "run whether logged on or not"
