at.exe (Task Scheduler) job lifetime on Vista

Hi folks,

I've been reading a lot in the forum lately but now I have to post as well...

I've been trying to get the old Task Scheduler (at.exe) running on Vista Enterprise to have scheduled jobs run indefinitively. Right now, I add a process via e.g.

$> at 15:00 notepad.exe

The job will start fine on the chosen time but will cease to run after 3 days (72 hours), killed by Vista/Task Scheduler.

A look via Start -> All Programs -> Accessoires -> System Tools -> Task Scheduler reveals, that a flag is set "Stop the task if it runs longer than" to "3 days".

Googling for help, I found a KB entry from Microsoft, how to change the default behaviour via a registry edit (A Task That Is Scheduled with the AT Command May Stop After 72 Hours Win XP/2000). This didn't do the trick on Vista Enterprise altough the registry section exists with the required parameter "AtTaskMaxHours").

Has anyone encountered similar issues on Vista or has anyone been able to overrule the default behaviour from 3 days to an "endless" job run?

Best regards,

John

thedude said:

that a flag is set "Stop the task if it runs longer than" to "3 days".

Click to expand...

Just uncheck this option.

It's a bit tricky, the at job are scripted and will run right after the add to the job list and noone is there to uncheck it. Event if somebody could, it's tricky as well as it's greyed out and can't be unchecked.

I found a rather tedious workaround using jt.exe which I downloaded from microsoft.com. It schedules task and let me overrule the max lifetime right upon creation. Neither at.exe nor schtasks could do this out of the box.

I must say I don't understand problem - I can easy create task and I have easy way to check and uncheck this option.If I want any advanced limitation setting for this task -for example I want run this task in 100 days just only manualy type 100 days.My sheduler fully accept manually typed value.

That's all good then, did you try adding it via the command prompt as I quoted? I did and I can't edit the settings anymore. Scripted means, another script is adding at jobs that way.

thedude said:

That's all good then, did you try adding it via the command prompt as I quoted?

Click to expand...

No any command prompt!Open Task Schedule,create task,navigate to this option clik on field and manually type what do you want for example 100 days

I said I need to add the task via a script calling the command line interface of at.exe (not the GUI). I know that I can do this via the GUI but that's not the point at all.

It works using the jt.exe utility obtained from ftp://ftp.microsoft.com/reskit/win2000/jt.zip but it so far doesn't work using the old at.exe command line interface.

I think is possible to use PowerShell to this :PowerShell Script to Schedule a Task - Task Scheduler API - Ying Li(MVP) at myITforum.com

If it is not enough I suggest to create this thread here:PowerShell - Vista Forums