Set a Scheduled Task to run when user isn't logged in

Question

I have been using the Powershell Scheduled Task Cmdlets to create a scheduled task on our servers.

How do I elect to \'Run whether user is logged in or not\' using

Answer 1

You need to remove $principal and register the task with a user and password:

Register-ScheduledTask -TaskName $taskname `
                       -TaskPath "\my\path" `
                       -Action $action `
                       -Trigger $trigger `
                       -User "$env:USERDOMAIN\$env:USERNAME" `
                       -Password 'P@ssw0rd' `
                       -Settings $settings

Answer 2

The “Run whether user is logged in or not” option in the Task Scheduler GUI is equivalent to New-ScheduledTaskPrincipal -LogonType S4U.

Answer 3

also control Run level check:

RunLevel

Specifies the required privilege level to run tasks that are associated with the principal.

e.g.: "Highest" or "Limited"

Answer 4

I do not like or approve of the currently highest rated answer as then you have to know your credentials into a script to do this and can't do this from something like Packer or some other system/configuration automation. There is a better/proper way to do this which Aeyoun mentioned but didn't go into details about which is to properly set the principal to run as the system user.

$action = New-ScheduledTaskAction -Execute foo.exe -Argument "bar baz"
$trigger = New-ScheduledTaskTrigger -Once -At (Get-Date) -RepetitionInterval (New-TimeSpan -Minutes 1) -RepetitionDuration ([Timespan]::MaxValue)
$principal = New-ScheduledTaskPrincipal -UserID "NT AUTHORITY\SYSTEM" -LogonType ServiceAccount -RunLevel Highest
$settings = New-ScheduledTaskSettingsSet -MultipleInstances Parallel

Register-ScheduledTask -TaskName "tasknamehere" -TaskPath "\my\path" -Action $action -Trigger $trigger -Settings $settings -Principal $principal

Answer 5

Once you have the task set up in the gui, run this

$task = Get-ScheduledTask "test task for notepad"
$task.Principal.LogonType = "Password"
Set-ScheduledTask $task