Using schtasks from the command line, what parameter will wake the computer from sleep and execute the task

Question

The option exists in the UI, but not in the help displayed in the command line.

Answer 1

Are you creating a new task via the schtasks.exe command line, or updating an existing task?

On Vista, schtasks.exe has an /xml option for both /create and /query. With this XML encoding of the task, you can see the WakeToRun node can be set for waking the computer from sleep to run the task:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-16"?>
<Task version="1.2" xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/windows/2004/02/mit/task">
  <RegistrationInfo>
    ...
  </RegistrationInfo>
  <Triggers />
  <Principals>
    ...
  </Principals>
  <Settings>
    ...
    <WakeToRun>true</WakeToRun>
    ...
  </Settings>
  <Actions Context="Author">
    <Exec>
      <Command>myprogram.exe</Command>
    </Exec>
  </Actions>
</Task>

If you need to create a task from the command line that wakes the computer, you could export the basics of the task to XML, modify this XML to add WakeToRun, then re-import this XML definition. You can do this two ways:

1. In the Task Scheduler UI, select "Wake the computer to run this task", right-click on the task and Export... to XML. You can then re-import this file on another machine (see below), and Wake-To-Run will be set. or,

2. Via the command line, create a task with the basics set (action, time, etc). Then, export the XML, programatically add the WakeToRun node (via XSLT or search/replace), then re-import this updated XML:

   schtasks.exe /create /tn /xml MyTask.xml /f

Answer 2

In step 2 the command line; schtasks.exe /create /tn /xml MyTask.xml /f This may kick an error that says; Invalid syntax. Mandatory option 'tn' is missing.

/tn needs a name. This should be

schtasks.exe /create /tn MyTask /xml "C:\MyTask.xml" /f

And if you have or want a space in the name, you can use;

schtasks.exe /create /tn "My Task With Spaces" /xml "C:\My Task With Spaces.xml" /f

Hope this helps...