{"id":223,"date":"2016-02-15T11:32:23","date_gmt":"2016-02-15T16:32:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.heliotropicsystems.com\/blog\/?p=223"},"modified":"2016-02-16T14:55:33","modified_gmt":"2016-02-16T19:55:33","slug":"why-would-a-security-product-interfere-with-windows-task-scheduler","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.heliotropicsystems.com\/blog\/index.php\/why-would-a-security-product-interfere-with-windows-task-scheduler\/","title":{"rendered":"Why Would a Security Product Interfere with Windows Task Scheduler?"},"content":{"rendered":"

One day, you look in the Windows Task Scheduler and see the message:<\/p>\n

The selected task \u201c{0}\u201d no longer exists.\u00a0 To see the current tasks click Refresh<\/p>\n

\"symNG2\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Well after you click OK and then click Refresh, you are still missing that task.\u00a0 And Windows is really great about not informing you of what that task is.<\/p>\n

Other articles on the Internet suggest going through the actual Tasks folder to determine where the disconnect is.\u00a0 I think I have an easier solution for anyone using a Symantec security product, particularly the Symantec Endpoint Protection Small Business Edition (also known as Symantec.cloud).<\/p>\n

Open an elevated command prompt and issue the following commands:<\/p>\n

cd \\
\ncd program files\\symantec.cloud\\antivirus
\navagent \u2013SHOW_UI<\/code><\/p>\n

The GUI will be displayed. (Norton Internet Security users simply open the product.)\u00a0 Depending on your version, the screen\u2019s appearance may differ from the one shown below (which is from NIS 21.5.0.19)<\/p>\n

Click on Settings, and select the General tab.<\/p>\n

\"symNG3\"<\/a><\/p>\n

When you click the question mark to the right of the Idle Time Optimizer, you see the web page that explains that this \u201cfeature\u201d automatically defragments the hard drive when the user is inactive for a period of time.<\/p>\n

\"symNG4\"<\/a><\/p>\n

I find this too pretentious for words.\u00a0 If I have set a disk defragment schedule on my computer, or any of my clients\u2019 computers, I fully expect those schedules will be maintained and adhered to.\u00a0 I certainly don\u2019t expect my security software to come along and interfere with them.\u00a0 Even worse, is the error message that ends up being displayed as a result of Symantec\u2019s change.<\/p>\n

So, turn off the Idle Time Optimizer.\u00a0 Click OK to apply.\u00a0 Close the GUI, and the command prompt.<\/p>\n

After you turn off this setting, click the Windows Start button, type “defrag” (without the quotes) in the Search bar to launch the Windows Defragmenter.\u00a0 Change any one of your existing settings to force the entry back into the Task Scheduler.\u00a0\u00a0 You can reset the minor change immediately, and then close the Defragmenter.<\/p>\n

Now, go back to the Task Schedule and see that there is no error message.<\/p>\n

There you have it, an amazingly simple solution to a vexing (and stupidly annoying) error message.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

One day, you look in the Windows Task Scheduler and see the message: The selected task \u201c{0}\u201d no longer exists.\u00a0 To see the current tasks click Refresh Well after you click OK and then click Refresh, you are still missing that task.\u00a0 And Windows is really great about not informing you of what that task …<\/span> Read More →<\/span><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[40,4,32,39],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-223","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-security","category-small-business","category-symantec","category-windows-7-tips"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.heliotropicsystems.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/223","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.heliotropicsystems.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.heliotropicsystems.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.heliotropicsystems.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.heliotropicsystems.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=223"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.heliotropicsystems.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/223\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":230,"href":"https:\/\/www.heliotropicsystems.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/223\/revisions\/230"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.heliotropicsystems.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=223"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.heliotropicsystems.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=223"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.heliotropicsystems.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=223"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}