8

On a Windows7 machine I am trying I can run a query to view all the scheduled tasks using schtasks.exe

This is fine but I would also like to filter the result set using something like

schtasks /query | where { $_.TaskName -eq "myTask" } 

The problem is I don't this schtasks returns a properly formatted list for the where function to work.

I've also tried:

schtasks /query /FO LIST
schtasks /query | format-list | where ....

those don't work either.

What would be the best way to query the schtasks on a local computer using Win7 and be able to filter them

2
  • What's with the backslashes in there? I'm fairly sure that's not what schtasks expects there, but rather a forward slash.
    – Joey
    Jun 18, 2010 at 21:37
  • ha! you're right. I've corrected it above
    – jdiaz
    Jun 20, 2010 at 4:20

6 Answers 6

8

You could try to use schtasks, which will leave you parsing text. This is almost always error prone, and definitely more difficult than it is to take the output of a command.

There happens to be a TaskScheduler module in the PowerShellPack. Once you install the PowerShell pack, to get all of the scheduled tasks, use:

Import-Module TaskScheduler
Get-ScheduledTask -Recurse

Since these are real objects, to find a task of a particular name, you can use:

Get-ScheduledTask -Recurse |  Where-Object { $_.Name -like "*Task*"}

In general, you will find that the PowerShell community has taken a lot of harder to use command lines, like schtasks, and turned them into easy-to-use cmdlets, like Get-ScheduledTask.

See Also:

Sending Automated Emails using the TaskScheduler Module

Hope this helps

3
  • 1
    This works great if you're using Win2k8 boxes (or vista/W7). Unfortunately, it doesn't work with W2k3 servers (which are still very common in my environment). Jun 28, 2010 at 3:09
  • @MikeShepard If you want the new toys, you have to stop using 11 year old operating systems.
    – Ryan Ries
    Jan 30, 2014 at 0:30
  • 1
    That's the story of my career. :-( Jan 30, 2014 at 13:08
2

if you don't need to do it in powershell then the following will work

schtasks /query | findstr /i "mytask"

ps version
schtasks /query | ?{$_ -like 'mytask'}

1
  • any full source code sample for create, query and delete tasks using PS ?
    – Kiquenet
    Sep 10, 2012 at 9:01
2

Here's a blog post I wrote about doing this. Essentially, I took the output of the /FO LIST /V, wrote that to a file, and imported it back in as objects using import-csv

4
  • 2
    You're on the right track but writing to a temporary file is unnecessary here: schtasks /query /fo csv /v|convertfrom-csv works just fine
    – Joey
    Jun 18, 2010 at 21:39
  • this is neat but still not easily queryable
    – jdiaz
    Jun 20, 2010 at 4:19
  • Johannes: you're right, but I really (really) dislike properties that have embedded spaces/colons/slashes. jdiaz: What's not queryable? The script I posted and Johannes' revision both return native powershell objects with properties. They should be just as queryable as any other powershell entities. Jun 28, 2010 at 3:08
  • 1
    Truly - they are queryable...schtasks /query /fo csv /v /s "myserver" | convertfrom-csv | Select TaskName, "Last Run Time", Author | ? {$_.Author -notmatch "microsoft|N/A|Author"} will provide you with all the custom scheduled tasks you have. Jan 29, 2014 at 22:56
2

You may try:

schtasks /query /FO CSV | ConvertFrom-CSV | Where { $_.TaskName -eq "myTask" } 

The trick is in converting output to CSV first, and then back to a powershell object.

0

You are overthinking it.

Commandline for what you want schtasks /query /s %computername%|FIND /I "%name_of_task%"

example schtasks /query /s server01|FIND /I "schedule"

-2

The best options is from Alex because you dont need library and you will convert the string's answers from schtasks in Powershell object.

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