Would you like to learn how to configure a group policy to create a scheduled task on Windows? In this tutorial, we will show you how to create a scheduled task using a GPO.
• Windows 2012 R2
• Windows 2016
• Windows 2019
• Windows 10
• Windows 7
Equipment list
The following section presents the list of equipment used to create this tutorial.
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Tutorial GPO – Create a scheduled task
On the domain controller, open the group policy management tool.
Create a new group policy.
Enter a name for the new group policy.
In our example, the new GPO was named: MY-GPO.
On the Group Policy Management screen, expand the folder named Group Policy Objects.
Right-click your new Group Policy Object and select the Edit option.
On the group policy editor screen, expand the User configuration folder and locate the following item.
Create a scheduled task.
On the General tab, perform the following configuration:
• Action – Create.
• Name – Enter a name to this task.
• Run only when the user is logged on – Optional.
Change the settings to suit your needs.
On the Trigger tab, click on the New button and perform the following configuration:
• Begin the task – At log on.
Click on the Ok button.
Change the settings to suit your needs.
On the Action tab, click on the New button and perform the following configuration:
• Action – Start a program.
• Program/Script – Enter the desired command or script.
• Add arguments – Enter the command arguments.
Click on the Ok button.
Change the settings to suit your needs.
In our example, we used these Powershell arguments to display a notification.
Here is the alert message that will be presented to the user after the logon.
To save the group policy configuration, you need to close the Group Policy editor.
Congratulations! You have finished the GPO creation.
Tutorial – Applying the GPO to create a scheduled task
On the Group policy management screen, you need to right-click the Organizational Unit desired and select the option to link an existent GPO.
In our example, we are going to link the group policy named MY-GPO to the root of the domain.
After applying the GPO you need to wait for 10 or 20 minutes.
During this time the GPO will be replicated to other domain controllers.
In our example, we created a scheduled task on all domain computers using a GPO.
