What's New in Task Scheduler

The following changes summarize what is new in different versions of Task Scheduler.

Task Scheduler 2.0

The Task Scheduler 2.0 API should be used in developing applications that use the Task Scheduler service on Windows Vista. For more information, see Task Scheduler Reference and Using the Task Scheduler.

Windows Server 2003, Windows XP, and Windows 2000:   The Task Scheduler 2.0 API is not available. Use Task Scheduler 1.0.

The following Task Scheduler 2.0 changes are introduced in Windows 7:

• Using the unified scheduling engine provided by the underlying operating system.
• Ability to reject starting tasks in Remote Applications Integrated Locally (RAIL) sessions.

• Task security hardening (for tasks running as "NETWORK SERVICE" or "LOCAL SERVICE" only):

  • Ability to assign a process token security identifier (SID) type (for example, unrestricted or none) to a task.
  • Allow task developers to request the exact set of privileges that their task requires.

• API changes:

  • Task security hardening support: new task security hardening feature is introduced with new IPrincipal2 interface.

  • Introduced two new task settings with the new ITaskSettings2 interface.

    • DisallowStartOnRemoteAppSession: The new DisallowStartOnRemoteAppSession setting can reject a task start if triggered in Remote Applications Integrated Locally (RAIL) sessions.
    • UseUnifiedSchedulingEngine: Using the UseUnifiedSchedulingEngine setting provides a cohesive behavior for Windows Tasks and Services because it is being managed in a uniform manner by a common system-wide scheduling engine. Although using a unified engine is recommended, it does not support some of the Task Scheduler features. If the combination of properties will not allow running of the task under a unified engine, the registration of such will be rejected.

    • The task features that are not supported by the unified scheduling engine include:

      • Logon types:

        • TASK_LOGON_S4U, TASK_LOGON_INTERACTIVE_TOKEN_OR_PASSWORD

      • Multiple instance policy:

        • TASK_INSTANCES_STOP_EXISTING

      • Actions:

        • Send e-mail
        • Display message

      • Settings:

        • Task network settings
        • Do not allow task hard terminate

      • Triggers:

        • Trigger execution time limit
        • Repetition patterns for calendar triggers
        • XPath query values for event triggers
        • Monthly and Monthly day-of-week trigger types

Related topics

Task Scheduler

About The Task Scheduler

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Build date: 2/7/2012