Task Scheduler

[sobershea]

I created a task to run Microsoft Security Essentials Scan on boot but the program never runs. To see if everything was setup properly I selected the "Run" option on the right side of the Task Scheduler window and the scan ran as it should. So that makes me think it is related to permissions even though I selected "Run with highest privileges". This is what the task looks like:

• General Tab - Run with highest privileges

• Trigger Tab - Run at system startup

• Actions Tab - Run a program - "C:\Program Files\Microsoft Security Essentials\MpCmdRun.exe" with the added argument of "-Scan"

Since the program runs if I manually run it from the Task Scheduler window I can't figure out why it won't run on a restart. Any Ideas?

[HansV]

As an alternative, you could create a shortcut with target

"C:\Program Files\Microsoft Security Essentials\MpCmdRun.exe" -scan -1

for a quick scan, or

"C:\Program Files\Microsoft Security Essentials\MpCmdRun.exe" -scan -2

for a full scan. Place the shortcut in your startup folder or the all users startup folder. (See How to Change, Add, or Remove Startup Programs in Windows 7)

[John Gray]

Since the program runs if I manually run it from the Task Scheduler window I can't figure out why it won't run on a restart. Any Ideas?

The usual Task Scheduler problem is with it not running under control of an appropriate account. I suspect you will need to use one with Administrator privileges (regardless of what other security options you've set). You might also get some clues from the History tab in the window for that task.

[sobershea]

I tried Hans' suggestion because that was so simple but when I rebooted, Microsoft Security Essentials (MSE) did not run a scan. Then I tried using Task Scheduler again, this time being sure that I changed the security options to "Administrators" even though my user is an administrator. Again, after booting, MSE did not run a scan. Then I tried creating a task to open notepad on boot, figuring notepad wouldn't have the same security issues as MSE. But notepad also didn't open. I can't imagine what I am missing. Creating a simple task shouldn't be this difficult. I have read and tried just about every tip I could find but nothing is working. I know the Scheduler is working because I created a task quite a while ago to run Secunia PSI on boot and that task works just fine. If anyone has an idea I sure would appreciate it.

TIA

[HansV]

Since neither a scheduled task nor a Startup menu option cause MSE to run a scan at startup, it's perhaps best to abandon this idea and to schedule a scan for a fixed time of the day; you can do this from within MSE or using the task scheduler; it'd be interesting to see whether the latter works.

[JoeP]

I tried Hans' suggestion because that was so simple but when I rebooted, Microsoft Security Essentials (MSE) did not run a scan. Then I tried using Task Scheduler again, this time being sure that I changed the security options to "Administrators" even though my user is an administrator. Again, after booting, MSE did not run a scan. Then I tried creating a task to open notepad on boot, figuring notepad wouldn't have the same security issues as MSE. But notepad also didn't open. I can't imagine what I am missing. Creating a simple task shouldn't be this difficult.

Can you post screenshots of the Task properties?

Joe

[sobershea]

Since neither a scheduled task nor a Startup menu option cause MSE to run a scan at startup, it's perhaps best to abandon this idea and to schedule a scan for a fixed time of the day; you can do this from within MSE or using the task scheduler; it'd be interesting to see whether the latter works.

The scan worked when I created a task to run at a set time.....The reason I wanted to run the scan on Startup is because MSE doesn't update the definitions automatically unless you have Windows Update set to Auto and I have it set to tell me when there are updates. So I keep getting the reminder that there are updates. I figured if I checked off the item in MSE that says to check for new definitions before running a scan, and then used Task Scheduler to run the scan at Startup, I could eliminate the annoying reminder about updates. I guess I will have to forget about this and just ignore the update reminder until Task Scheduler had done its thing.

Thanks Hans.

[sobershea]

Can you post screenshots of the Task properties?

Joe

Here is a link to the screenshots.. http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v622/ ... een-Shots/. Note that changing the User to "Administrators" or "System" didn't make any difference.

[HansV]

What happens if you select "Whether user is logged on or not" in the first tab?

[sobershea]

What happens if you select "Whether user is logged on or not" in the first tab?

I had tried that but got the following error message: http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v622/ ... =error.png And when you change the user to Administrators, the option for "Whether user is logged on or not" is grayed out.

[HansV]

I'm afraid I'm out of ideas; I hope that someone else will have a useful suggestion. Sorry!

[JoeP]

I had tried that but got the following error message: http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v622/ ... =error.png And when you change the user to Administrators, the option for "Whether user is logged on or not" is grayed out.

Do your accounts have passwords?

Joe

[sobershea]

No I don't use passwords....

[JoeP]

So this does not disturb your normal activites, try creating a new user account that has administrative privileges. Assign it a password. Try using this new account for the task.

Joe

[sobershea]

So this does not disturb your normal activites, try creating a new user account that has administrative privileges. Assign it a password. Try using this new account for the task.

Joe

I created a new user account with a password and changed the Task to run when that new user was logged in, then logged in as the new user. And (you guessed it) nothing happened. I guess it's time to let this one go. I found a free scheduler that supports scheduling the MSE Scan several times a day if I choose. And it works.

It is annoying that a simple task doesn't work in Microsoft Task Scheduler, but I did enjoy trying to figure it out - and I did find a scheduler that works.

Thanks for the ideas Hans and Joe.

[JoeP]

Did you ever look in the event logs to see if an error about the task got logged?

Joe

[Bigaldoc]

... I found a free scheduler that supports scheduling the MSE Scan several times a day if I choose. And it works.

For the possible benefit of others Sherry, would you mind posting the name or a link even better? Thanks.

[sobershea]

Did you ever look in the event logs to see if an error about the task got logged?

Joe

Well, having never really ventured into the netherworld of event logs, I think I can say with relative certainty that there were no events logged for MSE. I'm not sure however, if I want to know what all those other events are....

[sobershea]

... I found a free scheduler that supports scheduling the MSE Scan several times a day if I choose. And it works.

For the possible benefit of others Sherry, would you mind posting the name or a link even better? Thanks.

Al, I was going to put the link in my original post but hesitated because I hadn't used it all that much and didn't want to suggest something without giving it a bit of a trial. I have had System Scheduler running for a couple of days now, and it does just what it says. In fact it does much more than what I need. You can schedule popup reminders as well as launch programs and send keypresses and mouseclicks.

I'm using it to run the command prompt version of MSE, checking for updates and running a scan. I thought I read that Microsoft updates the definitions several times a day, so I have it set to run a couple of times a day. Now, when I check, MSE has the most current definitions and has been recently scanned.

You can read about it here and download it here.

[Bigaldoc]

Thanks Sherry!