I have setup a task using Task Scheduler that I would like to use to launch a batch file at a certain time each day.  The batch file works correctly when launched manually and the task also works correctly when the option 'Run only when user is logged on'.  However, as soon as I mark 'Run whether user is logged on or not' using the Administrator login, the task returns a Last Run Result of (0x1).  This happens when trying to launch the file on demand or when it is scheduled at it's daily time to run.

From some research I have done, I don't believe I should see the actions of the batch file and the program that it launches when this option is marked, but I know it is not running correctly in the background due to the fact the log files are not generated from the task it is to complete.  I have marked 'Run with highest privileges' and also entered information in the Start in field under Edit Action with no quotes.  The history logs show that the task successfully finished, despite the lack of the Last Run Result code and no log files being generated.  I have also verified the user being added to the Log on as a batch job option and that there are full permissions to the files (all on the local machine).

Does anyone have any insight to what I could be missing?  If helpful, i could post the history logs as well.

Thanks!

Thanks for the reply - yes, we have set this user up with this user right, but unfortunately to no avail.  I'm starting to think that it may be related to the program that is trying to launch and the process it is trying to run instead of the Task Scheduler after testing some more, so I'm planning to do some more research on that.

Thanks for your response however!

I had a similar issue today when I enabled "Run whether user is logged in or not" on a task that runs overnight. The task was configured to run a batch file with a simple copy command in it. After I enabled "Run with highest privileges", the task ran successfully.

Also remember that the user account you are using for the task has the privileges necessary for the programs in the batch file to complete successfully; i.e. if a command to copy something to a server is ran with a user account that exists on the local machine, but not on the server you are copying to, the task will fail silently and may or may not report a result. The same will happen if the username on the local machine and the server is the same, but the password is not.

• Proposed as answer by Jeremy - Plus I.T. _ Friday, January 06, 2012 7:03 PM

I had a similar issue today when I enabled "Run whether user is logged in or not" on a task that runs overnight. The task was configured to run a batch file with a simple copy command in it. After I enabled "Run with highest privileges", the task ran successfully.

Also remember that the user account you are using for the task has the privileges necessary for the programs in the batch file to complete successfully; i.e. if a command to copy something to a server is ran with a user account that exists on the local machine, but not on the server you are copying to, the task will fail silently and may or may not report a result. The same will happen if the username on the local machine and the server is the same, but the password is not.

• Proposed as answer by Jeremy - Plus I.T. _ Friday, January 06, 2012 7:03 PM

Is Microsoft ever going to a) publish a fix for this; or b) give a comprehensive solution for it? They seem to ignore it. I have done everything in every forum thread I've found to fix this and nothing works. It's a simple batch job that works with my personal account but no other. It accesses local files and a WinSCP upload. The user is in local administrators. It has batch logon privileges. 

I've tried running the WinSCP directly with the same results. 0x1.

Could MS at least explain what return code 1 is? Is that the really useful "unexpected error?" If it's a permissions issue, shouldn't it state that instead of claiming to have finished? Now I have to update this job every time I change my password and I have no idea what will happen if I should leave the firm. 

This is very poor design and even worse documentation. Support by forum should be illegal.

Check your relative paths in the batchfile. If you are using drive letters that points to a network drive. (drive that the is assigned to the user when logged on) then you wont be able to run the task with "Run whether user is logged in or not".

To use "Run whether user is logged in or not" you need to use UNC paths or point to the physical disk (if local drive).

Depending on the program executed in the batch file, it is however not always possible to use UNC paths.  

Agrree that MS has total F..... up the task scheduler. The log feature is just not usable with error codes like 0x1 or 0xFF. There are better 3. part alternatives....

I have found that entering the directory path to the "Start in (optional):" block for where the script originates works for me. If you put in the quotations around the directory, even though there is a space, within the Start in box I find it doesn't work, so you see I didn't put them in. Check out the screenie ..

• Proposed as answer by Skrigz Monday, October 08, 2012 8:02 PM

I have found that entering the directory path to the "Start in (optional):" block for where the script originates works for me. If you put in the quotations around the directory, even though there is a space, within the Start in box I find it doesn't work, so you see I didn't put them in. Check out the screenie ..

• Proposed as answer by Skrigz Monday, October 08, 2012 8:02 PM

I have found that entering the directory path to the "Start in (optional):" block for where the script originates works for me. If you put in the quotations around the directory, even though there is a space, within the Start in box I find it doesn't work, so you see I didn't put them in. Check out the screenie ..

• Proposed as answer by FrankM68 Wednesday, July 31, 2013 9:03 PM

I have found that entering the directory path to the "Start in (optional):" block for where the script originates works for me. If you put in the quotations around the directory, even though there is a space, within the Start in box I find it doesn't work, so you see I didn't put them in. Check out the screenie ..

• Proposed as answer by FrankM68 Wednesday, July 31, 2013 9:03 PM

But  did not worked for me...

That worked for me too

Thanks

Another thing often forgotten, is to grant explicit directory rights for the execution account. Typically this becomes a problem, if the batch job needs to create a log file or in any other way modify contents of the target folder. 

Thank you!

Thanks for tip, I got it to work finally!

My variation - just put the file name under 'Program/Script', no quotes and the directory under 'Start in' as described, again no quotes.

I have found that entering the directory path to the "Start in (optional):" block for where the script originates works for me. If you put in the quotations around the directory, even though there is a space, within the Start in box I find it doesn't work, so you see I didn't put them in. Check out the screenie ..

Thanks worked for me!

Thanks,

This solved my problem.

Problem.

OS: win 7 starter.

One Batch file with a copy command. This file didnt work with scheduler  but it works manually.

One Batch file with a ftp command. This file works fine with the scheduler and manually.

Solution.

In the scheduler of the copy bath file: filed in the directory in the start in field.

I had this same exact issue.

I later found out that the script I was using to create the scheduled task didn't copy the file that the scheduled task referenced.  I felt rather silly.

I had this issue too but the above techniques didn't work for me. I then worked out that the file name of the script was too long, so once I shortened it - it worked :)

Hope this helps!

Cheers

Steve

In my case, I configured a web server to email me an alert via Task Scheduler when a tester attempted to log in.  I was seeing (0x1) appear in the Task Scheduler results pane.

On investigation, Exchange 2010 was treating email from this server as spam.

In the Exchange 2010 Management Console -> Organisation Configuration -> Hub Transport -> Anti-spam -> Content Filtering -> Custom Words -> Allow messages containing these words or phrases: 

...I added the title of the email being blocked as a phrase.

Click "OK"

Retest from source server.  ...all then worked for me.

• Edited by lwoody7110 2 hours 27 minutes ago

In my case, I configured a web server to email me an alert via Task Scheduler when a tester attempted to log in.  I was seeing (0x1) appear in the Task Scheduler results pane.

On investigation, Exchange 2010 was treating email from this server as spam.

In the Exchange 2010 Management Console -> Organisation Configuration -> Hub Transport -> Anti-spam -> Content Filtering -> Custom Words -> Allow messages containing these words or phrases: 

...I added the title of the email being blocked as a phrase.

Click "OK"

Retest from source server.  ...all then worked for me.

• Edited by lwoody7110 Saturday, January 18, 2014 8:58 AM

I have the same issue where I have a Task which runs the Powershell script to Compress a whole bunch of bak & trn files from a local drive to create a RAR file using the locally installed WinRAR application. This process with RAR commandline also ensures deletion of all the files added to the archive.

Another task scheduled at a later stage picks the created .RAR file and transfers(MOVE - CUT PASTE) across to another server with UNC path reference.

When I run the script manually as Admin with Powershell, it works fine in both cases, but when attached to the Task Scheduler task, it comes up with the 0x1 error.

All these options:

• Run whether user is logged on or not
• Run with highest privileges
• Actions -> Edit -> Program/Script : I invoke Powershell and pass the ps1 file as the argument
• Start in : C:\Windows\System32\WindowsPowerShell\v1.0\
• task which is for the copying of the file on to the remote folder is run as this user which has Local Admin rights on both the machine it is running on and the remote server as well.

Any help would be deeply appreciated.

...even added .\<scriptfilename>.ps1 in the additional arguments, and tried to run and the result is still the same 0x1 error!

Just FYI, cant explain it. Don't know why, but I re-wrote my scripts that were failing, from scratch... The problem went away.

Initially the batch files would run manually no problem but would consistently fail through the task scheduler. Out of frustration, I deleted them and re-wrote... suddenly no problem! Go Figure...

I deleted the old ones so I can not go back and compare. Obviously something was wrong but I could never find it.

Hii,

Thanks it's work for me 

Hi,

I m facing the same problem in Windows 8.1 task schedular i have tried all the proposed solution mention above but nothing is working for my case.

In my case i m invoking the task from System account where the folder where the batch script resides has full control of System account.

The same scenarion i have checked in Windows 7 but it was working fine in that.

Please advice how to proceed for Windows 8.1.

-Lisham

In the task scheduler, edit the properties of the action and check you have the correct "start in" folder as that is likely to be an issue, even if the folder is specified in the Program/script field 

On the General tab, Check the last drop down and make sure it is pointing to correct OS. In my case , it was default set to Windows Vista ,Windows 2008 and my server was windows 2008R2. Once i changed it to Windows 2008R2 , it just worked fine with whether or not user logged in option. Hope that helps!

• Proposed as answer by Poonam K Gill Thursday, December 11, 2014 6:44 PM

There are three important options to make sure your task will run:  1 - Create your task using the "Create Task" option instead of the "Create Basic Task" (this gives you more options for the server type, usually the default server will work - Windows Server 2003, Windows XP, or Windows 2000).  2 - Use only UNC paths in your batch files and in the "Actions" Tab.  You can map drives on your computer, but you must use the UNC paths throughout your task.  3 - On the "General" Tab, select the "Change User or Group" and add the correct credentials even if you are already signed into the account with the correct credentials.  These options should work if you select to run the task when the user is logged on or not.  Place a pause at the end of your batch file so you can see any errors and test run the job.

NOTE: if you are trying to connect to an AS400 network folder, open an AS400 session.  You do not have to sign in, just start the session.

I tried everything that everyone suggested, but the only thing that I got to work was to put a command in the batch file to output a directory listing.

DIR C:\ > DIRECT.TXT

This makes absolutely no sense at all; however, it was the only way that I could get the batch file to run without any problems.

BTW, my batch file was running an FTP script to download files from IBM AS/400.

This was the one that worked for me (thanks You Rocke!)

My bat file would run fine when executed manually, just the task wouldn't run it!

Creating a 'New Task' rather than a 'Basic Task' gives you a Windows 7 option in the server type (which is what I needed in my case)

I also put the path (without quotes) into the 'Start In' box and ticked the 'Run with Highest Privileges' box.

Thanks all

Mark...

I must say it was rather nice to figure out that (0x1) could mean that the batch file couldn't be found. The batch file I was trying to run had an amperstand (&) in the file name which evidently caused Task Scheduler problems when trying to run it. Meanwhile, I was able to run the batch file outside of TS without any problems.

Tip: If TS isn't running the batch file as schedule, try running it via the 'Run' command within TS, either via the right click menu or the option on the right hand side panel.

Hi, 

Try Changing Server in Configure Box on General Tab of Task. I changed it from Windows vista to windows xp which worked for me :)

I had this issue.  How I resolved it was to explicitly state all paths used in the .bat file.

e.g. the code in runTest.bat 

call test.bat > test.log

became

call "C:\test.bat" > "C:\test.log"

This worked like a charm.