Creating Scheduled Task with Powershell - Using specific user account

dafyre

@dustinb3403 said in Creating Scheduled Task with Powershell - Using specific user account:

Hrmm. . .

I wonder if New-ScheduledTaskPrincipal -UserID 'localhost\user' would work. . . but what would I use to pass in the password. . .

Why are you running it as a specific user instead of SYSTEM ?

DustinB3403

@dafyre said in Creating Scheduled Task with Powershell - Using specific user account:

@dustinb3403 said in Creating Scheduled Task with Powershell - Using specific user account:

Hrmm. . .

I wonder if New-ScheduledTaskPrincipal -UserID 'localhost\user' would work. . . but what would I use to pass in the password. . .

Why are you running it as a specific user instead of SYSTEM ?

For some unknown to me reason running as a system task was failing. . .

DustinB3403

Oh I know why now. . .

Rather than actually running the powershell script (task scheduler) it is launching notepad to attempt to open the ps1 file.

This obviously is a failure.

What needs to execute is "powershell.exe" with arguments -ExecutionPolicy Bypass c:\Scripts\choco-upgrade.ps1

DustinB3403

Which maybe (can't recall if I tried this. . .) just doing

-execute 'powershell.exe' -arguments '. .. . ' will work. .

DustinB3403

Nope that fails. . . -Arguments isn't a known parameter

DustinB3403

This here says I should be using New-ScheduleTaskAction with -execute and -argument

but it fails.. . .

DustinB3403

doh. . . it would help if I didn't fatfinger the spelling of "Argument". . .

Working version

Set-ExecutionPolicy Bypass -Scope Process -Force; iex ((New-Object System.Net.WebClient).DownloadString('https://chocolatey.org/install.ps1'))
choco install flashplayerplugin flashplayeractivex firefox googlechrome vlc sharex filezilla openshot 7zip.install wiztree -y
#Create a new trigger that is configured to trigger at startup
$STTrigger = New-ScheduledTaskTrigger -Weekly -WeeksInterval 4 -DaysOfWeek Saturday -At 8PM
#Name for the scheduled task
$STName = "choco-upgrade"
#Action to run as
$STAction = New-ScheduledTaskAction -Execute 'Powershell.exe' -Argument '-ExecutionPolicy Bypass c:\Scripts\choco-upgrade.ps1'
#Configure when to stop the task and how long it can run for. In this example it does not stop on idle and uses the maximum possible duration by setting a timelimit of 0
$STSettings = New-ScheduledTaskSettingsSet -DontStopOnIdleEnd -ExecutionTimeLimit ([TimeSpan]::Zero)
#Configure the principal to use for the scheduled task and the level to run as
$STPrincipal = New-ScheduledTaskPrincipal -GroupId "BUILTIN\Administrators" -RunLevel "Highest"
#Register the new scheduled task
Register-ScheduledTask $STName -Action $STAction -Trigger $STTrigger -Principal $STPrincipal -Settings $STSettings
New-Item -ItemType directory -Path C:\Scripts
cd "c:\"
copy-item "\\serverpath\folder\folder\Scripts\choco-upgrade.ps1" -Destination "C:\Scripts\choco-upgrade.ps1"

DustinB3403

So using the SYSTEM account appears to work, at least when I manually run the task. So meh w/e. It still requires a user to be logged in, which I might see if I can change that flag as I don't want to rely on my users remaining logged in.

But they likely never sign out either.

Obsolesce

I know this post is old, but I've found doing scheduled tasks with SaltStack is insanely simple and very effective lately... so much more than using MS Group Policy.

https://docs.saltstack.com/en/latest/ref/modules/all/salt.modules.win_task.html

wrx7m

@obsolesce said in Creating Scheduled Task with Powershell - Using specific user account:

I know this post is old, but I've found doing scheduled tasks with SaltStack is insanely simple and very effective lately... so much more than using MS Group Policy.

https://docs.saltstack.com/en/latest/ref/modules/all/salt.modules.win_task.html

I really want to get back into learning saltstack again.

scottalanmiller

@wrx7m said in Creating Scheduled Task with Powershell - Using specific user account:

@obsolesce said in Creating Scheduled Task with Powershell - Using specific user account:

I know this post is old, but I've found doing scheduled tasks with SaltStack is insanely simple and very effective lately... so much more than using MS Group Policy.

https://docs.saltstack.com/en/latest/ref/modules/all/salt.modules.win_task.html

I really want to get back into learning saltstack again.

You can, in theory, use it to report and manage Windows Defender.

Obsolesce

@wrx7m said in Creating Scheduled Task with Powershell - Using specific user account:

@obsolesce said in Creating Scheduled Task with Powershell - Using specific user account:

I know this post is old, but I've found doing scheduled tasks with SaltStack is insanely simple and very effective lately... so much more than using MS Group Policy.

https://docs.saltstack.com/en/latest/ref/modules/all/salt.modules.win_task.html

I really want to get back into learning saltstack again.

Here's an example of a task that goes to all minions it's supposed to go to... and it "just works". No AD required.
Also, using SaltStack to sync that .ps1 it runs from GitLab:

0_1525903964206_a7c132dd-863e-484e-a947-e291f463a810-image.png