Task Scheduler: Cannot Remove "Scheduled Start" Task

[Jody Thornton]

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?

 

Edited October 17, 2018 by Jody Thornton

[aviv00]

maybe its permission problem try

https://www.sordum.org/9416/powerrun-v1-3-run-with-highest-privileges/

[Jody Thornton]

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

 

Edited October 17, 2018 by Jody Thornton

[Jody Thornton]

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!

 

[HarryTri]

Let it be Jody. It isn't much of an issue and peace of mind is more important.

[dencorso]

Well, you can always create a scheduled task (as trusted installer) to delete any scheduled task named "Scheduled Start" and have it run every quarter-hour. It can be a script using sc.exe run from a minimized cmd box. or something like that. In any case, althoug running 4 times per hour it'll use very little processor time, so it's a viable workaround. Just my 2¢, of course. 

[Jody Thornton]

1 hour ago, HarryTri said:

Let it be Jody. It isn't much of an issue and peace of mind is more important.

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.

1 hour ago, dencorso said:

Well, you can always create a scheduled task (as trusted installer) to delete any scheduled task named "Scheduled Start" and have it run every quarter-hour. It can be a script using sc.exe run from a minimized cmd box. or something like that. In any case, althoug running 4 times per hour it'll use very little processor time, so it's a viable workaround. Just my 2¢, of course. 

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.

 

[dencorso]

If that works, great! However, my reasoning was: if the thing gets recreated, there's someone doing it. Of course, that "someone" is not a person, but it must be a system agent aka "service". And, since I have my own degree of paranoia, it ocurred to me the worst case ought to be if the service in question were some you'd not want to disable, like the "Windows Defender" background service, whatever its name may be on Win 8. In that case, creating a "deleting scheduled task" might be the only possible workaround. Then again, there are many rosier scenarios that can be envisaged, besides the pessimistic one I just described. At the end of the day, only your careful experimenting and tweaking may lead us to know which is the case. But it sure is an interesting problem I'll be sure to kepp following. Unfortunately, I can not contribute with experiments myself, because I don't own any Win 8 at the moment, and, at work they went on to 8.1 already (and I'd have to root the system, which I'd rather not do)...   OTOH, of course, I'm grateful they've stopped at 8.1 at work and did not jump into the ugly juggernaut of Win 10!  

[Jody Thornton]

3 hours ago, dencorso said:

If that works, great! However, my reasoning was: if the thing gets recreated, there's someone doing it. Of course, that "someone" is not a person, but it must be a system agent aka "service".

Oh I agree there.  Totally thought this all along.

3 hours ago, dencorso said:

If that works, great! However, my reasoning was: if the thing gets recreated, there's someone doing it. Of course, that "someone" is not a person, but it must be a system agent aka "service". And, since I have my own degree of paranoia, it ocurred to me the worst case ought to be if the service in question were some you'd not want to disable, like the "Windows Defender" background service, whatever its name may be on Win 8. In that case, creating a "deleting scheduled task" might be the only possible workaround.

Well renaming the WindowsUpdate tasks folder didn't work.  A new folder was created eventually in it's place.

 

[UCyborg]

On 10/16/2018 at 5:35 PM, Jody Thornton said:

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".

Because Task Scheduler GUI doesn't understand custom triggers. If you delete it, it works.

On 10/16/2018 at 5:35 PM, Jody Thornton said:

Then I had Windows Update and BITS services set to Manual.

Windows Update service has a trigger defined that will start it under certain circumstances; remove it with:

sc triggerinfo wuauserv delete start/machinepolicy

For the task being recreated/overwritten problem, disable it in Task Scheduler first then take away write permission for the SYSTEM account on the file C:\Windows\System32\Tasks\Microsoft\Windows\WindowsUpdate\Scheduled Start.

[Jody Thornton]

8 hours ago, UCyborg said:

Because Task Scheduler GUI doesn't understand custom triggers. If you delete it, it works.

Windows Update service has a trigger defined that will start it under certain circumstances; remove it with:

sc triggerinfo wuauserv delete start/machinepolicy

For the task being recreated/overwritten problem, disable it in Task Scheduler first then take away write permission for the SYSTEM account on the file C:\Windows\System32\Tasks\Microsoft\Windows\WindowsUpdate\Scheduled Start.

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?

 

[Jody Thornton]

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!

 

[Jody Thornton]

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!

 

[dencorso]

Well, I was thinking about this kind of thing, when I wrote my previous post. Now it seems you've got to set about creating a "deleting scheduled task" (more properly a "scavenging scheduled task"), isn't it?

[Jody Thornton]

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