Happy Customer...with a Request

[HappyElderGeek]

   Dear Shane:

I use Windows Repair a lot, and I tell my clients to buy it (I won't use the product on their computers until they do; for the value you give, the price is a pittance).  I'm using v3.4.0

One question:  The sole nagging problem I have with many Windows 7 systems is that the Task Scheduler was apparently written as a high-school class project, and tested by their brothers and sisters in grade-school.  It's buggier than an entomologists' laboratory.  If you dare touch it (e.g., inadvertently delete a key, or a file) it is broken and irreparable.

Is there any chance that you can add a rebuild of the "stock" Task Scheduler to your wonderful tool?  I don't have the Windows programming chops, but here's what I'd do:  I'd build a new, working, fully updated Windows 7 SP1 system, and then copy the program itself, all the files (three different places) and all the registry entries (again scattered across the registry), then copy the entire collection back to the Windows drive and registry.  That would completely replace all the "stock" tasks (albeit resetting any customizations), but restore the system to a fully working ab initio system without touching any of the users' own tasks or those loaded by other vendors (e.g., Adobe, Google, et. al. for periodic update checks).

To avoid the copyright implications, I would be quite happy if you required the user to provide the Windows 7 SP1 "Recovery" disk (unless they already have a Recovery Partition), so all you have to do is copy files without "distributing" any of M$'s code.

Curiously, the Upgrade/Repair install of Windows 7 from the DVD does NOT reinstall the Task Scheduler...I've tried, several times.

I'd make this another feature of the Pro edition, to increase the probability that you are more adequately compensated for your marvelous work.  Given the many, many users who've been pleading with M$ for years in their fora for some help, I'm confident it would be a money-maker.  I'll even volunteer, should you implement it, to go back to every forum on Task Scheduler I've ever visited and tell them you've got a solution they can use.

Thanks for considering the possibility.

--Yours,
   Happy Elder Geek

[Shane]

I would be more than happy to add it to the program so long as I can automate it

Send me an email and send over the files and registry keys that you use, I can use those to look through and see what it would take to add it to the repairs

My email is listed on the about page on the site http://www.tweaking.com/core/imprint/index.html

Shane

[HappyElderGeek]

I don't have a spare system here to install Win7 fresh right now...if I did, I'd report the step-by-step.  When I do have a system and the time, I'll try to capture both Win7 X32 and X64 versions, see if they're identical (or one is a subset of the other) and eMail them to you.  In the meantime, perhaps other visitors to the site have already done that and can share their work?

[Shane]

No one else has let me know yet, and by getting the files and locations of the files and registry will save me a lot of work trying to find them all on my own lol, they dont need to be perfect as I will pull them myself from a fresh install of windows I keep in vmware. I just need the locations and such more than anything

Shane

[HappyElderGeek]

Here's what I think I know, from ferreting out my own desktop and laptop:

Folders where Task XMLs are stored:
C:\Windows\System32\Tasks
C:\Windows\SysWOW64\Tasks

There is also a folder at C:\Windows\Tasks, but it appears these are solely third-party add-on tasks (e.g., Google, Adobe updaters), and perhaps only for legacy apps.  I think this folder is empty in a fresh install.

Registry Entries Referring to the XML files in folders above:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Multimedia\SystemProfile\Tasks
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Schedule\TaskCache\Tasks
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Schedule\TaskCache\Tasks

There is also a key at HKCU:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\MediaPlayer\Player\Tasks
This one, I suspect, would have to be placed in each Authorized User's profile in the registry, at the same key (but User's GUID for HKCU).

The Registry Entries are heavily dependent upon GUIDs for internal references.  My check on several entries, comparing my Desktop to my Notebook, suggest the same GUIDs are used for the same tasks and dependencies.  The lists may differ (e.g., my Laptop has one I noticed at the top of a list, NOT in the list on the Desktop; it appears to be application-related, and would depend on whether that third-party app--or driver--has been installed or not).

What I also don't know (I sound like an ignoramous, don't I???  Consequence of being an engineer, I suppose)...
1)  Are these the same for all editions of Win7?  (I suspect so)
2)  Are these locations the same in Win7, Win8, Win10?  (No clue; I only install Pro for all my clients)
3)  Are the sets of Tasks the same in Win7, Win8, Win10?  (I'd doubt it...but folks in this Forum with those systems can help, I'd hope)

The best keyword for searching from Explorer is to enclose the word in quotation marks:  "tasks".

--Happy Elder Geek

[Shane]

Thanks for the info

Mind doing me a fav and sending me a reminder post later this week? I am slammed and what ends up happening is I freaking forget lol

Shane