Can't modify task "Reboot" in win10 home

Question

I have windows 10 home, and I'm logged in as my user, which has administrator privilege. I go in the "Task Scheduler", under "Task Scheduler Library > Microsoft > Windows > UpdateOrchestrator", there's a task named "Reboot". I right-click for the properties, go on "Conditions" and disable "Wake the computer to run this task". When I click on "OK" to save the modification, it asks me for a user+password. (The window says "Enter user account information for running this task").

The "User name" field already comes by default with the value "S-1-5-18" which apparently is one of the internal users of windows. I tried using my password to no success. I changed the user to my user and try my password, also no success. I enabled the "Administrator" user and tried the same with that user, also no success.

The message that it gives me is: "An error has occurred for task Reboot. Error message: The following error was reported: 2147943004". I don't know a correct user/password to change the setting, and I don't know how to take ownership or change permissions so that it won't ask for a user/password.

I'm really upset that there's some setting that I can't modify in my own computer, so I want to know why, and how to get the proper permissions. I seem to have the same problem as this guy, but he never got an answer on how to change this setting. He managed to disable it, I did it too, but still I want to know what I was supposed to do to change the setting, regardless of disabling the task. Also, he's in win10pro and I'm in win10home, so I don't have access to lusrmgr.msc or gpedit.msc.

Answer 1

windows 10 home [...]

upset that there's some setting that I can't modify in my own computer ... I want to know why

You answer your own question. Home is for home users who do not necessarily have the capability to manage or maintain their systems. In locking home users out of some settings like this Microsoft are making some attempt to prevent the horrors of the XP era of unpatched systems where people have turned off updates because they don't understand why they need them and the implications of not getting them.

On to the guts of your question. S-1-5-18 is the LocalSystem user, this is a highly privileged account that normal users, even administrators, are not supposed to be able to interfere with on a day to day basis.

The idea is that we control windows through the userland tools and the operating system will make the necessary changes to the underlying processes that execute as system. Hence your inability to take control of the task you mention. The theory is that you don't change things here, you should be changing them in the graphical interface that you access through the usual settings window.

However there are tricks that you can use to bypass these protections.

To run with the privileges of SYSTEM you can do the following:

• Get a copy of PSEXEC from sysinternals
• Run the following in an Administrative CMD window
  • PSEXEC /S CMD.EXE

This will give you a command shell running as SYSTEM in session 0. From here you can execute commands as that user, meaning you will be able to change the function of those scheduled tasks

SCHTASKS /Change is your most likely option, from here you can take control of the tasks, stop, start, delete

Answer 2

Success. After much trying, this is what works for me on Windows 10 Home. Download PSExec.

PSEXEC /S CMD.EXE
SCHTASKS /Change /tn "\Microsoft\Windows\UpdateOrchestrator\Reboot" /DISABLE
You should get: SUCCESS: The parameters of scheduled task "\Microsoft\Windows\UpdateOrchestrator\Reboot" have been changed.

Answer 3

I'm using Windows 10 Pro and was having a similar issue. I wasn't able to change my "Wake the computer to perform this task" setting on the reboot task using the task scheduler UI, but found I eventually could using this method:

Using psexec as Patrick suggested:

1. Run a command prompt as administrator.
2. Navigate to where the psexec executable is located.
3. Run .\psexec -s -i cmd.exe to open a new cmd window.
4. In the new cmd window run taskschd.msc (or %windir%\system32\taskschd.msc).
5. Edit your task like before. You shouldn't be prompted for credentials.

I started looking for a solution for this when Windows would wake my computer from sleep to force a reboot. The problem is my bootloader pins the CPU at 100% while it waits for my input. My laptop is often closed when this happens and it becomes hot to the touch. I'm worried for my desktop too, which hasn't been acting normal since I started finding it sitting at the bootloader in the morning, with all the fans on.

Answer 4

windows_update_reboot_toggle.bat
Disable protected reboot and wake tasks. No external tools needed. Built-in undo.

@echo off &title Windows Update Reboot Toggle
reg query "HKEY_USERS\S-1-5-20\Environment" /v TEMP >nul 2>nul || goto need_admin_rights

set "updatetasks=HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Schedule\TaskCache\Tree\Microsoft\Windows\UpdateOrchestrator"
call :check_status "%updatetasks%\Reboot"
echo.
echo      ---------------------------------------------------------------------
echo     :                  Windows Update Reboot Toggle v4.6                  :
echo     :---------------------------------------------------------------------:
echo     : Prevent protected reboot and wake to run tasks without disabling WU :
echo     :           Just run this script again to toggle tasks on/off         :
echo     :                                                                     :
echo     :                          Currently: %STATUS%%_%                     :
echo     :                                                                     :
echo     : Press Alt+F4 to cancel                    Always run latest version :
echo      ---------------------------------------------------------------------
echo       All-around Windows Update Toggle available at https://git.io/vx2et
echo.
timeout /t 10 &echo.

:: Use Reg_TakeOwnership snippet to unprotect UpdateOrchestrator task cache registry keys
reg add "%updatetasks%\Reboot" /v checkrights /d 1 /f >nul 2>nul || call :reg_takeownership "%updatetasks%" Administrators recursive
reg delete "%updatetasks%\Reboot" /v checkrights /f >nul 2>nul
:: Toggle Reboot task
call :toggle_task "%updatetasks%\Reboot"
:: Toggle Schedule Retry Scan task
call :toggle_task "%updatetasks%\Schedule Retry Scan"
:: Update status
call :check_status "%updatetasks%\Reboot"
echo.

:: Done!
echo -------------------------------------
echo  Windows Update Reboot Tasks now: %STATUS%
echo -------------------------------------
echo.
pause
exit

::----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
:: Utility functions
::----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
:check_status %1:TaskCache entry in registry
reg query "%~1" /v "Id_OFF" >nul 2>nul && set "STATUS=OFF" || set "STATUS=ON!"
set "_=        " &if "%STATUS%"=="OFF" ( color 0c ) else color 0b
exit/b

:toggle_task %1:TaskCache entry in registry
reg query "%~1" /v "Id_OFF" >nul 2>nul && set "isOFF=1" || set "isOFF="
reg query "%~1" /v "Id" >nul 2>nul && set "isOFF=" || set "isOFF=1"
if defined isOFF ( call :reg_query "%~1" "Id_OFF" ID_BACKUP ) else call :reg_query "%~1" "Id" ID_BACKUP
if defined isOFF ( reg delete "%~1" /v "Id_OFF" /f &reg add "%~1" /v "Id" /d %ID_BACKUP% /f )
if not defined isOFF ( reg delete "%~1" /v "Id" /f &reg add "%~1" /v "Id_OFF" /d %ID_BACKUP% /f )
exit/b

:reg_takeownership %1:regkey[ex:"HKCU\Console"] %2:_user[optional, default:"Administrators"] %3:_recursive[optional, default:""]
set "s10=$dll0='[DllImport(''ntdll.dll'')]public static extern int RtlAdjustPrivilege(ulong a,bool b,bool c,ref bool d);'; $ntdll="
set "s11=Add-Type -Member $dll0 -Name NtDll -PassThru; foreach($i in @(9,17,18)){$null=$ntdll::RtlAdjustPrivilege($i,1,0,[ref]0)};"
set "s12=function Reg_TakeOwnership { param($hive, $key, $own, $inherit=$false);"
set "s13= $reg=[Microsoft.Win32.Registry]::$hive.OpenSubKey($key,'ReadWriteSubTree','TakeOwnership');"
set "s14= $acl=New-Object System.Security.AccessControl.RegistrySecurity; $acl.SetOwner($own); $reg.SetAccessControl($acl);"
set "s15= $acl.SetAccessRuleProtection($false,$false);$reg.SetAccessControl($acl);"
set "s16= $reg=$reg.OpenSubKey('','ReadWriteSubTree','ChangePermissions'); if($inherit){"
set "s17= $rule=New-Object System.Security.AccessControl.RegistryAccessRule($own,'FullControl','ContainerInherit','None','Allow');"
set "s18= $acl.ResetAccessRule($rule);$reg.SetAccessControl($acl);} }; $rk=$regkey -split '\\\\',2; $key=$rk[1];"
set "s19=switch -regex ($rk[0]) { '[mM]'{$HK='LocalMachine'};'[uU]'{$HK='CurrentUser'}; default {$HK='ClassesRoot'}; }; $HK; $key;"
set "s20=if($user -eq ''){$user='Administrators'}; [System.Security.Principal.NTAccount]$owner=$user; $rcsv=($recursive -ne '');"
set "s21=Reg_TakeOwnership $HK $key $owner $true; if($rcsv){$r=[Microsoft.Win32.Registry]::$HK.OpenSubKey($key);"
set "s22=foreach($sk in $r.GetSubKeyNames()){$sk; try{ Reg_TakeOwnership $HK $($key+'\\'+$sk) $owner }catch{} }} "
setlocal & for /l %%# in (10,1,22) do call set "ps_RegTakeOwnership=%%ps_RegTakeOwnership%%%%s%%#:'=\"%%"
powershell.exe -c " $regkey='%~1';$user='%~2';$recursive='%~3'; %ps_RegTakeOwnership%;"
endlocal & exit/b                                         AveYo: call :reg_takeownership "HKLM\MyKey" "NT Service\TrustedInstaller"

:reg_query %1:KeyName %2:ValueName %3:OutputVariable %4:other_options[example: "/t REG_DWORD"]
setlocal & for /f "skip=2 delims=" %%s in ('reg query "%~1" /v "%~2" /z 2^>nul') do set "rq=%%s" & call set "rv=%%rq:*)    =%%"
endlocal & set "%~3=%rv%" & exit/b                                              AveYo: call :reg_query "HKCU\MyKey" "MyValue" MyVar

:need_admin_rights
color 0c&echo. &echo  PERMISSION DENIED! Right-click %~nx0 ^& Run as administrator &timeout /t 60 &color 0f&title %COMSPEC% &exit/b
::end

Answer 5

When you say "home", you of course mean Win 10 Home vs Win 10 Pro? I ask because I have several computers, all Windows 10 Home, and most let me modify the tasks without that admin password popping up, but a few don't. Home version doesn't make a difference, something else is preventing changes.

I would venture a guess that you can modify the tasks from a clean installation of Win 10 BEFORE you do any updates... however once updates go through, you lose control over many system features like tasks. Deleting tasks does no good, you have to delete the triggers inside of the tasks and then try to disable them all after a clean installation.

Answer 6

I was able to disable it by going to the following path, backing up the old task, and making a new blank one.

%windir%\System32\Tasks\Microsoft\Windows\UpdateOrchestrator

If that doesn't work in your OS version, try the .bat or the registry change in this link but I don't know if it might cause problems for you.