What's New in Windows Vista?

The New Task Scheduler

The Task Scheduler makes computing life easier by letting you automate certain routine jobs. This ability is not new to Windows Vista, although the Vista Task Scheduler application most certainly is.

As you will note, Task Scheduler's "pane" appearance is much like that of Outlook 2003/2007, with a Console Tree in the left pane, the Task List in the middle pane, and an Actions pane on the right. The Task List is further divided into top and bottom panes, with the Task Preview (Properties) pane showing below a selected task in the top. So even though, in the interest of thoroughness, I describe how to access a task's Properties dialog box in the instructions that follow, there's really no need.

Further, the Task Scheduler panes can be shown/hidden with the toolbar buttons and the View menu options.

Schedule a Task

Here's how to use the Task Scheduler to make life easier:

1. Open the Task Scheduler from the system tools list located under the Accessories grouping. You may be prompted for an administrative password if you're not already logged on as an administrator.

2. In the Task Scheduler's program window, look at the Actions pane on the righthand side. These are the same actions you'd find under the Action menu. Choose Create Basic Task.

3. Give the task a name, and, optionally, a description. Note that every task must have a name and the name must be unique to the task. Click Next.

4. You're now presented with several options:

   • For a calendar-based task, choose Daily, Weekly, ...