Unable to see scheduled custom tasks after upgrading to windows 10

Question

I had added some basic tasks to display a message at regular intervals using Task scheduler. After upgrading to windows 10 , I am unable to view or edit them. The tasks are working fine (Message pop up is coming as scheduled).

When I tried to create a new task, I found that "Display a message" option is deprecated in windows 10. Is that the reason the tasks are not listed in the Task scheduler library? I am able to view the newly created task (with "Start a program" option). Is there any way to delete the old tasks I created prior to the upgrade?

Update:

As @Peter suggested, I could list the tasks using schtasks command. The tasks I created prior to upgrade are there in the list. But when I try to delete the task using schtasks /Delete /TN "\mytask" command, it is throwing an error:

ERROR: The specified task name "\mytask" does not exist in the system.

I could delete newly created tasks using the command btw.

Update:

Deleting the tasks from the C:\Windows\System32\Tasks folder fixed the issue for me. But for my coworker, a simple machine restart fixed the issue :)

Answer 1

You can open a command line window and type schtasks to list existing tasks, find your task and remember the folder and the taskname, then type schtasks /Delete /TN "\folder\task name" to delete that task.

You can also check whether a file for your task exists in:

C:\Windows\System32\Tasks

It may be okay to just delete the file but make a backup first.

Answer 2

Do a machine restart. Most of the time it fixes the issue. Especially if you are facing the issue immediately after upgrading to windows 10.

If it doesn't work, you may have to delete the obsolete task using the Registry Editor as mentioned in comment by @w32sh, which involves deleting the tasks from C:\Windows\System32\Tasks as the final step.

Answer 3

Opening Task Scheduler on upgraded system will most likely display a disappointing message: The selected task “… task name…” no longer exists. To see the current task, click Refresh.

You will not be able to recreate tasks with the same name since those tasks are still present, regardless of the fact that those tasks will not be displayed when checked using PowerShell commands: Get-ScheduledTask or schtasks

Folder C:\Windows\System32\Tasks on upgraded system should still contain all the tasks created previously on Windows 7 PC.

After opening Task Scheduler interface (and acknowledging 1 by 1 that old tasks do not exist) , navigate from root “Task Scheduler (Local)” to Task Scheduler Library->Microsoft. While in the Microsoft subfolder the Action menu will list option Import Task…. Instead of the Action menu, you can also right click on the folder to select Import Task action Note that this action is not available in the level up Task Scheduler Library.

All tasks in C:\Windows\System32\Tasks are xml files, but none of them has the xml extension. Changing the file extension from XML files *.xml to All files . will allow you to select old “lost” Task and import it back.