schtasks issue: The request is not supported

Question

I'm working with a virtual machine, which is not very responsive due to network issues. On that virtual machines there are some scheduled tasks which regularly I need to start manually. Seen the bad responsiveness of that machine, I'd like to start those scheduled tasks from my own PC. Therefore I launch following command:

schtasks /run /s <virtual machine name> /u <domain>\<username> /p <password> /tn "<scheduled task I want to launch>"

When I try this, I get following error message:

ERROR: The request is not supported.

My own PC is a Windows 10, the virtual machine I'm referring to is a Windows XP.

Does anyboydy know if it's possible to launch scheduled tasks on a Windows XP machine remotely?

Thanks
Dominique

Solution

Does anybody know if it's possible to launch scheduled tasks on a Windows XP machine remotely?

Yes, this is possible to complete from a newer version of Windows (e.g. 10) than XP from the newer version to the XP machine, but you have to do something a little special to ensure the scheduled task you execute from the new machine works as expected.

The error message of ERROR: The request is not supported is an indicator that what you are trying to run from schtasks.exe is not compatible with the way you are doing this from the remote machine due to version differences in the schtasks.exe app.

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Workaround Solution (no third party tool needed)

^{This is the tested solution I've had success with in the past personally for something similiar so this is a workaround solution.}

From the Windows XP machine, go to C:\Windows\System32 and then copy the schtasks.exe file over to a temporary location on the Windows 10 machine such as your desktop. You will then rename this copied schtasks.exe file to schtasksxp.exe and then copy it to the C:\Windows\System32 folder on the Windows 10 machine. Now from the command prompt, you will just need to ensure that you use schtasksxp.exe rather than the default (newer version) schtasks.exe when you need to manipulate an XP machine remotely.

So you'd use this for example rather than what you have above in your question:

schtasksxp /run /s <virtual machine name> /u <domain>\<username> /p <password> /tn "<scheduled task I want to launch>"

Comments

[Dominique]

Thanks. I've tried your solution but now I get another error message The network path was not found., while a ping to this machine was working fine.

[Vomit IT - Chunky Mess Style]

@Dominique Type the full content of what you are putting in the command window in a comment here so I can look it over... This sounds like a separate issue but copy what you are using so I can look it over but take out or mask anything sensitive.

[Vomit IT - Chunky Mess Style]

@Dominique Just to ensure that the issue is not with the Windows XP machine Firewall to confirm, try to disable the XP Windows FW from the control panel and then afterward run the schtasksxp task and see what happens. If it works this way with no error, then you'll need to open some things up in the firewall and I can tell you what that likely is but test this first to see if this is what's going on here. Disabling the FW temporarily will just be used to confirm that the issue is at this level.

[Vomit IT - Chunky Mess Style]

@Dominique Sorry for all the comments, I have to step away for a few but if you determine that disabling the Windows XP firewall from the control panel resolves the problem, then for a more secure long-term solution to resolve, give this a shot... enable the Windows XP firewall back and then from command prompt, run this command and then press ENTER netsh firewall set service RemoteAdmin enable... test and see if that resolves with the FW being enabled... Let me know how it goes.... Be sure to read my above comments as well.