Windows Vista: Schedule Maintenance Tasks

1. Choose Start➪Control Panel➪System and Maintenance and then click Schedule Tasks in the Administrative Tools.

2. In the resulting Task Scheduler dialog box, choose Action➪Create Task.

3. In the resulting Create Task dialog box, enter a task name and description. Choose when to run the task (only when you are logged on, or whether you’re logged in or not).

4. Click the Triggers tab and then click New. In the New Trigger dialog box, choose a criteria in the Begin the Task drop-down list and use the Settings to specify how often to perform the task as well as when and at what time of day to begin. Click OK.

5. Click the Actions tab and then click New. In the New Action dialog box, choose the action that will occur from the Action drop-down list. These include starting a program, sending an e-mail, or displaying a message. Depending on what you choose here, different action dialog boxes appear. For example, if you want to send an e-mail, you get an e-mail form to fill in.

6. If you want to set conditions in addition to those that trigger the action that control whether it should occur, click the Conditions tab and enter them.

7. In the resulting dialog box, select a start time and start date by clicking the arrows in each field. Then click Next.

8. Click the Settings tab and make settings that control how the task runs.

9. After you complete all settings, click OK to save the task.

If you like a more wizard-like interface for building a new task, you can choose the Create Basic Task item from the Action menu. This walks you through the most basic and minimal settings you can make to create a new task.