Sams Teach Yourself Microsoft Windows XP in 24 Hours

By Greg Perry

• Table of Contents
  • Copyright
  • About the Author
  • Acknowledgments
  • Tell Us What You Think!
  • Introduction
  • Part I: Wake Up with Windows XP
  • Hour 1. Taking a Bird's-Eye Look at Windows XP
  • Hour 2. Getting Started with Windows XP
  • Hour 3. Managing the Windows XP Interface
  • Part II: Morning Windows Desktop Exploration
  • Hour 4. Working with the My Computer Window
  • Hour 5. Navigating Files with Windows Explorer
  • Hour 6. Calling for Help
  • Hour 7. Improving Your Windows Desktop Experience
  • Part III: Early Afternoon Windows Exploration
  • Hour 8. Installing Programs with Windows XP
  • Hour 9. Finding Files, Folders, and Friends
  • Hour 10. Using the Desktop Accessories
  • Part IV: Late Afternoon Internet Integration
  • Hour 11. Surfing the Web with Internet Explorer
  • Hour 12. Tying Windows into the Web
  • Hour 13. Networking with Windows XP
  • Hour 14. Managing E-mail and Newsgroups with Outlook Express
  • Part V: An Evening with Advanced Windows
  • Hour 15. Exploring Your Hardware Interface
  • Hour 16. Understanding Printing and Fonts
  • Hour 17. Using Windows on the Road
  • Hour 18. Giving Windows XP a Tune-Up
  • Hour 19. Managing Your Hard Drives
  • Hour 20. Tinkering with the Advanced System Tools
    • Check Your System
    • Dr. Watson, Come Right Away
    • Using the Task Manager
    • Scheduling System Tasks
    • Using System Restore
    • Summary
    • Q&A
    • Workshop
  • Part VI: Having Fun at Nighttime
  • Hour 21. Using Media Player
  • Hour 22. Picturing Windows XP Graphics
  • Hour 23. Making Movies with Windows XP
  • Hour 24. Advanced Windows XP Tips
  • Part VII: Appendixes
  • Appendix A. Differences Between the Windows Home and Professional Edition
  • Appendix B. Glossary
  • Appendix C. Answers to Quizzes

Scheduling System Tasks

Throughout this 24-hour tutorial, you've seen numerous tools that enable you to manage your Windows system and fine-tune its work environment. Hour 18, "Giving Windows XP a Tune-Up," explains how to update your system to the latest files and download Windows corrections and upgrades when Microsoft releases them. Hour 19, "Managing Your Hard Drives," discusses how disk drive tools keep your disk drives running at their most efficient state. In addition, proper system procedures require that you back up your operating system settings often, as this hour explains later. Restoring your operating system to its best state in the event of system failure requires recent system backups.

A Windows program called Scheduled Tasks enables you to schedule these system programs as well as any other program to run at preset time periods. You can defragment and back up your hard disk every morning at 4:00 a.m. if you want. You can log into the Internet and retrieve e-mail before work, during lunch, and before you leave work.

When you designate Scheduled Tasks to run when you start Windows, Scheduled Tasks waits in the background until the time comes to run one of its programs. If you're using your PC when the program runs, you won't be bothered. If, however, a program that you schedule tries to use a data file that you are editing, the Scheduled Tasks program will be unable to function and will display an error or shut down.

Scheduling tasks to run is simple. After you set up Scheduled Tasks, you can easily modify the times or dates your scheduled programs run. In addition, you can easily add and remove scheduled programs as the following To Do item demonstrates.

To Do: Using Scheduled Tasks

1. Select the Start menu's All Programs, Accessories, System Tools, Scheduled Tasks program. Figure 20.8 shows a typical Scheduled Tasks window. If your taskbar shows the Scheduled Tasks icon, you can double-click that icon to more quickly open the Scheduled Tasks program. (Even when you start Scheduled Tasks for the first time, the Scheduled Tasks window might contain some entries.)

2. Double-click the first entry, called Add Scheduled Task. The Scheduled Task Wizard begins, which enables you to set up a scheduled program. Click Next to see the list of programs you can set up with the wizard as shown in Figure 20.9.

   If the program you want to schedule does not appear in the list, click the Browse button to select a program from the folders that appear.

   

   Figure 20.8 These programs will run at preset times.

   

   Figure 20.9 The Scheduled Task Wizard gives you a list of common programs to schedule.

3. Walk through the wizard and set up Disk Cleanup to run weekly. The final wizard dialog box gives you the option of setting up program options available for most programs you schedule. For example, you can set up the scheduled task to stop after running for a certain period of time in some cases. This dialog box appears after you select the check box labeled Open Advanced Properties for This Task When I Click Finish.
4. To change a scheduled task's scheduled time, open that task (by double-clicking it) to display a dialog box that enables you to change the scheduled properties. Click on the Schedule tab to display the Schedule page shown in Figure 20.10 and make any change you want to make. As you can see, Windows gives you complete control over a task's schedule, even letting you omit weekend days from the schedule. Close the window.
   

   Figure 20.10 Change the schedule for a task to suit your requirements for the program.

5. To delete a scheduled task, such as the one you added earlier, select the task and press the Delete key. Scheduled Tasks sends the scheduled task to the Recycle Bin where you can retrieve the task, if you change your mind, until you empty the Recycle Bin.
6. To turn off an individual scheduled task without removing the task, open the task by clicking or double-clicking on the task's entry and uncheck the Enabled option. The task remains idle in the task list until you check Enabled or until you remove the task from the list.
7. You can temporarily turn off all scheduled tasks without having to change each one individually by selecting Advanced, Stop Using Task Scheduler from the menu.

8. Select File, Close to terminate your Scheduled Tasks session.

The Scheduled Tasks program can operate when you are not at your computer. Defragment and back up your disk in the middle of the night so that your system isn't slowed during the day by those routine operations. Schedule certain programs to run when you start or shut down Windows. Scheduled Tasks gives you complete control over your scheduled tasks.

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