From Newsgroup: alt.comp.os.windows-11

Hi All,

W11-25H2 V2

I was working a a task that a customer wanted run
from the Task Scheduler. Every time I tested
is said "running". It should have exited almost
instantly.

I tore my hair out trying to figure out why is never
exited. Turns out, all I had to do was press "F5"
to refresh the Task Scheduler screen. My code way
fine!

HTH some else,
-T
--
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Serious error.
All shortcuts have disappeared.
Screen. Mind. Both are blank.
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From Newsgroup: alt.comp.os.windows-11

T <T@invalid.invalid> wrote:

W11-25H2 V2

I was working a a task that a customer wanted run
from the Task Scheduler. Every time I tested
is said "running". It should have exited almost
instantly.

I tore my hair out trying to figure out why is never
exited. Turns out, all I had to do was press "F5"
to refresh the Task Scheduler screen. My code way
fine!

After running a scheduled task, Task Scheduler does not automatically
refresh its display nor refresh when status of a task changes. You run
a task, refresh, and then check status.

menu: Action -> Refresh
Actions panel -> Refresh
F5 also works.

Commands to services are asynchronous: Task Scheduler, or sc.exe, issue
the command, but there is no response from the service for the Task
Scheduler to trigger upon to know the service's state has changed. When
Task Scheduler issues a state change, it doesn't wait and report a state change, because service didn't report the state change hence Task
Scheduler (or sc.exe, the service controller) are asynchronous to the
effect of the commands they sent to the services. That's why you have
to be careful when bringing up some services that you do so in the
correct order, and refresh to see when the dependent services are ready.

The services do not issue a semaphore or signal when they've changed
state. The Task Manager won't know until it polls the service, and
that's done on a refresh.

Been that way for a very long time. Probably back through all NT-based versions of Windows. Commands are asychronous to the service state.
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From Newsgroup: alt.comp.os.windows-11

T wrote:

I was working a a task that a customer wanted run
from the Task Scheduler.  Every time I tested
is said "running".  It should have exited almost
instantly.

Task Manager doesn't auto-refresh the status, you have to use F5.
--- Synchronet 3.21d-Linux NewsLink 1.2

From Newsgroup: alt.comp.os.windows-11

On 4/30/26 01:34, Andy Burns wrote:

T wrote:

I was working a a task that a customer wanted run
from the Task Scheduler.  Every time I tested
is said "running".  It should have exited almost
instantly.

Task Manager doesn't auto-refresh the status, you have to use F5.

It sure seemed to on many of the other things I was testing.

--- Synchronet 3.21d-Linux NewsLink 1.2

From Newsgroup: alt.comp.os.windows-11

T wrote:

Andy Burns wrote:

Task Manager doesn't auto-refresh the status, you have to use F5.

It sure seemed to on many of the other things I was testing.

It may do it on a longish interval, but not reliably ...

--- Synchronet 3.21d-Linux NewsLink 1.2

From Newsgroup: alt.comp.os.windows-11

On Thu, 30 Apr 2026 12:26:03 +0100, Andy Burns wrote:

T wrote:

Andy Burns wrote:

Task Manager doesn't auto-refresh the status, you have to use F5.

It sure seemed to on many of the other things I was testing.

It may do it on a longish interval, but not reliably ...

The task may perform on data that the customer kept adding, which of course, lengthen the time for the task to complete each time more data is added.

Did the custom don't think that, more data require more time to process?
Or does the customer not aware that, the data grows bigger over time?

Or maybe the storage performance has decreased due to its age?
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From Newsgroup: alt.comp.os.windows-11

On 4/30/26 05:24, JJ wrote:

On Thu, 30 Apr 2026 12:26:03 +0100, Andy Burns wrote:

T wrote:

Andy Burns wrote:

Task Manager doesn't auto-refresh the status, you have to use F5.

It sure seemed to on many of the other things I was testing.

It may do it on a longish interval, but not reliably ...

The task may perform on data that the customer kept adding, which of course, lengthen the time for the task to complete each time more data is added.

Did the custom don't think that, more data require more time to process?
Or does the customer not aware that, the data grows bigger over time?

Or maybe the storage performance has decreased due to its age?

ChatGPT had me chasing after whether the task was still running
or no. It wasn't. Then I thought about refreshing the page
and came up with "f5" when I could not find "refresh" in any
of the pull downs.

This one need a refresh:

<Exec>
<Command>cmd.exe</Command>
<Arguments>/c taskkill /IM QBW.EXE /F &gt;nul 2&gt;&amp;1 &amp;
timeout /t 2 &gt;nul &amp; tasklist /FI "IMAGENAME eq QBW.EXE" | find /I "QBW.EXE" &gt;nul &amp; exit /b %errorlevel%</Arguments>
</Exec>


This one did not

<Exec>
<Command>C:\Rakudo\bin\raku.exe</Command>
<Arguments>C:\NtUtil\Alpen.Backup.raku --rotates 20
--UNC_BackupPath [BACKUP]\MyDocsBackup\backup1</Arguments>
<WorkingDirectory>C:\NtUtil</WorkingDirectory>
</Exec>


I am no stranger to the Task Scheduler, but this is
the first time I have seen this inconsistent behavior.

So I thought I'd post the f5 tip in case anyone else
started pulling their hair out too.

--- Synchronet 3.21d-Linux NewsLink 1.2

From Newsgroup: alt.comp.os.windows-11

T <T@invalid.invalid> wrote:

On 4/30/26 05:24, JJ wrote:

On Thu, 30 Apr 2026 12:26:03 +0100, Andy Burns wrote:

T wrote:

Andy Burns wrote:

Task Manager doesn't auto-refresh the status, you have to use F5.

It sure seemed to on many of the other things I was testing.

It may do it on a longish interval, but not reliably ...

The task may perform on data that the customer kept adding, which of course, >> lengthen the time for the task to complete each time more data is added.

Did the custom don't think that, more data require more time to process?
Or does the customer not aware that, the data grows bigger over time?

Or maybe the storage performance has decreased due to its age?

ChatGPT had me chasing after whether the task was still running
or no. It wasn't. Then I thought about refreshing the page
and came up with "f5" when I could not find "refresh" in any
of the pull downs.

This one need a refresh:

<Exec>
<Command>cmd.exe</Command>
<Arguments>/c taskkill /IM QBW.EXE /F &gt;nul 2&gt;&amp;1 &amp; timeout /t 2 &gt;nul &amp; tasklist /FI "IMAGENAME eq QBW.EXE" | find /I "QBW.EXE" &gt;nul &amp; exit /b %errorlevel%</Arguments>
</Exec>

This one did not

<Exec>
<Command>C:\Rakudo\bin\raku.exe</Command>
<Arguments>C:\NtUtil\Alpen.Backup.raku --rotates 20
--UNC_BackupPath [BACKUP]\MyDocsBackup\backup1</Arguments>
<WorkingDirectory>C:\NtUtil</WorkingDirectory>
</Exec>

I am no stranger to the Task Scheduler, but this is
the first time I have seen this inconsistent behavior.

So I thought I'd post the f5 tip in case anyone else
started pulling their hair out too.

When you start, stop, or disable a task with, say, sc.exe (service
controller), you need to query status of the service to determine when
its state actually changed before using sc.exe to start another service
that depends on the prior one.

sc.exe start <servicename>
sc.exe query <servicename>

You would need to parse the output of the 2nd sc command to determine if
the service started, like in a for-loop looking for status, and exiting
the loop when the service started, or after a number of retries with a
delay between each query.

Service state change is asynchronous to the commands to affect services.
You can issue the "sc start <service>" command, but it's not going to
hang around waiting until the service reports it started or failed. sc
is asynchronous to (independent of) the service state.

Start the service, and keep querying it to see if and when it changed
state. Refreshing the UI for Services (services.msc) is just it doing
another query.
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