Create scheduled task in Windows Task Scheduler

Windows Task Scheduler is a utility that helps to execute any process periodically. For example, you want to sync your working files on daily basis, scanning virus, process some data, etc.

A task has the following components:
  • Action or multiple actions - which is the process that you want to run periodically. We use New-ScheduledTaskAction to create new action object.
  • Trigger - which is the time to run the process and it can have multiple timing. We use New-ScheduledTaskTrigger to create new trigger.
  • Security context - any process must run in a valid security context. We can set the context using New-ScheduledTaskPrincipal.
The following script creates an on demand task which requires user to manually trigger the task.


$task_folder = "\myTasks\"

$task_name = "myTask2"
# this can be any Powershell script.
$ps_script_file = "d:\temp5\test-script.ps1"

## The first line will show err if $task_folder does not exist.
## The second line will not show any err if $task_folder does not exists.
#$exist = Get-ScheduledTask -TaskPath $task_folder | Where-Object {$_.TaskName -eq $task_name}

$exist = Get-ScheduledTask | where {$_.TaskPath -eq "\myTasks\" -and $_.TaskName -eq $task_name }

if (!$exist)  {
       
    $axn = New-ScheduledTaskAction -Execute "powershell.exe" -Argument "-ExecutionPolicy Bypass ""$ps_script_file"""
   
    Register-ScheduledTask -TaskName $task_name  -TaskPath $task_folder -Action $axn
   
    Write-Host "created new task"

}
else {
    Write-Host "The task already exists"
}

The contents of test-script.ps1

$dt = (get-date).ToString()
Set-Content -Path "d:\temp5\test-ps-output.txt" -Value $dt


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