PowerShell script within PowerShell-created task doesn't run

Question

I'm working on a test script to get the idea of working with the Task Scheduler in PowerShell.

I don't want to have any credentials within the script for security matters.

My idea was to create a task in PowerShell which runs a script but for some reason it won't execute properly and I don't get why.

My task is created as following:

$taskName = "WeeklyMaintance"
$User = "NT AUTHORITY\SYSTEM"
$Trigger = New-ScheduledTaskTrigger –Daily -At "08:14"
$Action = New-ScheduledTaskAction -Execute "PowerShell.exe" -Argument "D:\Some SW\_Scripts\testing.ps1"
Register-ScheduledTask -TaskName $taskName -Trigger $Trigger -User $User -Action $Action -RunLevel Highest

and the script looks like this

$Logpath = "D:\Some SW\_Scripts"
$logname = "Log.txt"
function Write-Log {
    Param ([string]$logstring)
    $timestamp = Get-Date -Format "dd.MM.yyyy HH:mm:ss"
    $log = "[$timestamp]: $logstring"
    Add-Content -Value $log -Path "$Logpath\$logname"
}
Write-Log "My Test for research worked"

The Logfile is already created and this works perfectly fine when executed normaly but for some reasen as I create the task and run it with the task it won't start.

Did I something wrong with the creation of the task or using the system here?

Edit:

I found out it was only the path which must have been the "bad guy".

As I changed the path from "D:\Some SW_Scripts" to "D:\Test"

Ash · Accepted Answer · 2019-05-02 08:40:01Z

3

I have had issues with this in the past and I've needed to add the '-File' parameter to the action.

$taskName = "WeeklyMaintance"
$User= "NT AUTHORITY\SYSTEM"
$Trigger= New-ScheduledTaskTrigger –Daily -At "08:14"
$Action= New-ScheduledTaskAction -Execute "PowerShell.exe" -Argument "-File `"D:\Some SW\_Scripts\testing.ps1`""
Register-ScheduledTask -TaskName $taskName -Trigger $Trigger -User $User -Action $Action -RunLevel Highest

answered May 2, 2019 at 8:40

Ash

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3 Comments

Ansgar Wiechers Over a year ago

@Kevin The code also adds double quotes around the path, which should take care of what you described as the cause of the issue in your own answer.

Kevin Over a year ago

@AnsgarWiechers are there any diffrences in quotas and double quotas ? Or should I maybe have added those quotas in the "argument" itself ?

Ansgar Wiechers Over a year ago

@Kevin You need double quotes around the path string (single quotes won't work). For nesting double quotes in a double-quoted string (like the answer does) you must escape the nested double quotes with backticks (like the answer does). Alternatively you could use a single-quoted string, in which case the nested double quotes must not be escaped (-Argument '-File "D:\Some SW\_Scripts\testing.ps1"')

Utku · Accepted Answer · 2022-12-05 12:11:03Z

I had the same problem.

I had an executer.ps1 file which was trying to execute backup.ps1 file.
When I tried to run the backup.ps1 file directly, it was perfectly fine; however, when I tried to execute it within the executer.ps1, the New-ScheduledTaskAction was unable to execute it.
As @Ash mentioned, I added -File to the line and explicitly wrote the path between the quotes but didn't work for me.
Finally, I modified the line as: New-ScheduledTaskAction -Execute $powerShellExe -Argument "-executionpolicy bypass -noprofile -file $scriptDirectory" and it worked for me.

[string]$scriptDirectory = "C:\Users\<username>\Desktop\PS\backup.ps1"
[string]$powerShellExe = "PowerShell.exe"
[string]$taskName = "BackupTask"
[string]$description = "Test backup task"
[string]$userId = "NT AUTHORITY\SYSTEM"

$trigger = New-ScheduledTaskTrigger -Daily -DaysInterval 3 -At 12:58:05pm
$principal = New-ScheduledTaskPrincipal -UserID $userId -LogonType S4U
$settings = New-ScheduledTaskSettingsSet -MultipleInstances Parallel -DontStopIfGoingOnBatteries
$action = New-ScheduledTaskAction -Execute $powerShellExe -Argument "-executionpolicy bypass -noprofile -file $scriptDirectory"  # Specify what program to run and with its parameters

Register-ScheduledTask -TaskName $taskName -Trigger $trigger -Action $action -Description $description -Settings $settings -Principal $principal

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