Jody Thornton

You're both right. So yes I removed the Custom Trigger. That allowed me to edit the properties of the Scheduled Start task. Then I removed the "One Time" event trigger. I saved the task, and then disabled it. Then I applied a Deny permission to the System Account on the file itself.

We have success. I have updated Windows Defender. and attempted running a manual update. BITS and Windows Update come on as needed, and then go back off eventually. Both services are set to Manual. But most importantly, the Scheduled Task entry never regenerates or starts. It has remained "Disabled" I want to thank everyone for their help. @UCyborg, @dencorso and @HarryTri, I appreciate all of your help.

Funny - I posted this question over at the DM Windows 8 forum. They're friggin' useless over there. Not even a single thread comment. Just in case you want to hear what crickets chirping sounds like: https://www.eightforums.com/threads/task-scheduler-cannot-remove-scheduled-start-task.78706/

I gave the SYSTEM account "Deny" access to the task file. So far, the task has remained disabled. Windows Defender does allow manual update checks. No updates since 8:25 am EST. And the Windows Updates service does start as needed.

Hmmmmmm - now we're cooking. I shall let you know!

D'oh! Yes Dencorso (hand me a tissue....lol)

Well - sigh! Things were looking really good for awhile. It stayed disabled for nearly three hours. I even restarted Windows 8 without any trouble. Scheduled Start remained disabled. Then I manually updated Windows Defender! After a successful update, Bam! The task was re-enabled and the date was reset to current. Now it will check again this afternoon. Crap! Crap! Crap! You should have control over this if you so desire. Oh well, that really looked hopeful!

So I removed the System write/modify permissions on the task file under System32\Tasks. Then I deleted the "Custom Trigger" in Scheduled Start", and also set ahead the date for December 28, 2023. I can now save changes. It's still disabled. However, let's see if anything changes now if I leave it for awhile, or restart Windows 8. Here's hoping!

That is GOOD information @UCyborg. Now if I remove the trigger on Windows Update, will Defender still be able to update when it's placed on a schedule?

I don't find that xper really locks threads on this site. To me locking threads and forcing newly made ones, just adds bulk to the forum. Besides, what if you have a new answer to provide the topic years later? And thanks for the heads up on Comodo. Luckily I've retired my Vista box, but my mom uses XP/POS Updates. I had her uninstall MSE v4.304.0 because she was getting the over-active CPU usage (and fan noise). He system sped up immensely when it was gone, so I was going to install Comodo on it. Maybe now I won't.

Oh I agree there. Totally thought this all along. Well renaming the WindowsUpdate tasks folder didn't work. A new folder was created eventually in it's place.

Yes but in my case, peace of mind is that i not run. I respect where you're coming from, but I want it gone. I recreated a task called Scheduled Task, but as an Admin, and it was overwitten. This time I renamed the task folder "WindowsUpdate" to "Windows Update". So far the task have NOT been regenerated. We shall see.

So since I cannot edit the task, I deleted it, and created a new task with the same name of "Scheduled Start", with different parameters. Then I disabled it. After about an hour, my new task was replaced with a new instance of the default "Scheduled Start" task. D'oh!

That was a valiant attempt @aviv00but it appears not to be permission related.

Hello All! I have disabled Automatic Updates in Windows 8 now. The only time I use Windows Update services are to update Windows Defender definitions, via a scheduled task, or to manually install patches I download from the Microsoft Catalog. Then I had Windows Update and BITS services set to Manual. Everything works fine this way, and Windows Update itself is set in Control Panel to NEVER check for updates I still noticed however in Task Scheduler, under the folder "WindowsUpdate", there is a task called "Scheduled Start" that runs automatically every six or so hours to scan Windows Updates services (I assume for updates perhaps). I don't wish for this task to run. I have deleted it, removed the "Tree" and Task Cache" key from the registry, heck - I even deleted the whole WindowsUpdate task folder. No matter which of these I tried (each seemed to go through successfully), the task would be recreated after a reboot, or after a half-hour. And properties of the task cannot be changed at all. You try to save changes and a message box appears saying: "Task Scheduler Service is not available. Task Scheduler will attempt to reconnect to it". And that's where I'm at. Has anyone experienced this at all?

Except for corporate license holders, but that's only because MAJOR money is involved

For Windows 8, I'll use Windows Defender, alongside on-demand scans with Malwarebytes (I still use v1.75 with current definitions). For Windows Vista, 7 or XP, I'd install Comodo Anti-Virus. It seems complete, and REALLY quick.

Could that redefine the term "assault and battery" ?

I didn't realize how old this thread was. Is this the best place to post for Windows Phone? I want to avoid iOS and Android like the plague.

I was considering getting a second-hand Windows Phone 7 or 8.1 and using IE 11. Would the built in IE 11 be OK for browsing forums and the like? I would hardly use Facebook. I'd probably browse forums, play YouTube or Podcasts (not subscribed but just MP3s directly downloaded), and get email.

I'm on Windows 8 (which allows me to use patches from Server 2012) I've fresh installed on to a "new to me" PC workstation. I've only updated to November 2017, except for IE 10 - I've installed the latest browser and Flash updates for it (Flash is built in to Windows 8). I've gone no further. Now my performance seems top-notch, but I worry that not updating in the long run will cause security holes in the OS. Soon, I'll be a year out of date. It seems "irresponsible" almost. But @NoelChas gone through exhaustive testing and it shows installing the updates up until current (and disabling Spectre/Meltdown mitigations) still results in an 8% decrease in certain performance parameters. Now was that because those mitigations were still installed (although disabled?) Who's to say. So what I hope to find is ABSOLUTE VALIDATION that installing all security updates to current but skipping March 2018's update is a worthwhile idea. @NoelC's theory is that not installing consecutive updates all the way through might destabilize the OS in some way, because newer updates require dependencies or prerequisites from older updates. Somehow I need to get proof that's NOT the case.

Well I'm all by myself over at the Windows 8 Update thread. I've downloaded the updates, but I only installed IE10, and it will stay that way for awhile, until I'm confident no other updates since December 2018 will hamper performance.

Plus, every Windows-based OS needs some tinkering out of the box, and more so with each version. But Windows 10 seems to reset stuff with every update and build. I hope I can figure out a way to safely update Windows 8 (without performance clogging CPU-impairing updates that seem to be the norm now), because I want to stay with it at least for five years.

For Rocktober! I've installed the IE10 update (KB4462949). I also downloaded the Security-Only Update (KB4462931) and the .NET v4.5.2 update (KB4457018), but I'm not installing them. I have my installation of Windows 8 set to a November 2017 timeline. I was concerned about the integrity of the December 2017 update because of rebooting issues, so I held off for now. (perhaps that's fixed now.) Time to reboot.

I'm just staying with .NET v4.5 until I need a application that requires anything higher.