schtasks in windows XP

I am trying to use schtasks to create a scheduled task. While I have no problem using this utility on my Windows 8 machine (or Windows 7 for that matter), I find that XP machines don't have this exe installed.
Is this correct or am I doing something wrong ? (when I type schtasks in the command line of XP machines I get 'schtasks is not recognized...').
According to the MSDN (http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/desktop/bb736357(v=vs.85).aspx) docs this is supposed to be supported by XP and up. If not, is it possible to run this as a standalone program (meaning, to copy the process myself to the target machine and execute it) ?

Thanks !

Shaish

Posted 2012-12-25T17:37:21.240

Reputation: 113

Answers

It is possible that you don't have %SystemRoot%\system32 in your PATH variable. Does it work when you call it with the full path like %SystemRoot%\system32\schtasks.exe?

This utility should be present in every version of Windows XP but Home an Starter as @Sriniv's answer indicates.

If you're using XP Home/Starter you can safely copy the utility to %SystemRoot%\system32. I've checked it with Dependency Walker and it doesn't seem to have any external dependencies apart from WinAPI.

You should be wary of licensing issues though, the Product Name of this utility is Microsoft® Windows® Operating System so it probably counts as a part of Windows XP edition you're taking it from and might have to be licensed. I'm not an expert in licensing though so this might be incorrect.

mprill

Posted 2012-12-25T17:37:21.240

Reputation: 850

mprill, the utility is simply not there (the path you mentioned).
I am using Windows XP Home Ediition XP3 on a virtual machine (<- could this be connected ?). – Shaish – 2012-12-26T08:41:32.273

I stand corrected by @Sriniv's answer. It shouldn't be present in Home, but it being a VM doesn't matter. I've edited my answer. – mprill – 2012-12-26T21:55:29.980

the AT command may be available

– SeanC – 2012-12-27T22:05:32.017

I've tried copying to %SystemRoot%\system32 but it didn't work :/ – Shaish – 2012-12-29T17:58:58.343

@Shaish: can you elaborate what happened? Does it launch (a cmd window will open and close really fast) when you double click it? Does it work with full path in cmd? – mprill – 2012-12-30T02:35:07.813

@mprill I get - "schtasks.exe is not a valid Win32 application" – Shaish – 2012-12-30T09:04:42.207

Did you copy it from the right version (32-bit vs. 64-bit). It looks like you copied a 64-bit version to a 32-bit system. – mprill – 2012-12-31T02:19:01.013

Looks like XP home edition does not have this command. I don't have a xp home system to verify it, but this wiki article confirms it. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schtasks

Sriniv

Posted 2012-12-25T17:37:21.240

Reputation: 240