How to set “run only if logged in” and “run as” with TaskScheduler in C#?

Question

I am trying to use the c# Task Scheduler Managed Wrapper to programmatically generate scheduled tasks on a windows system. I can generate tasks, but i cannot get it to run only when the account is logged on:

I have been looking around and I found another SO question that was asked last year, but either there are other relevant settings that aren't mentioned, or something in the code base has changed since then:

How to set "run only if logged in" and "run as" with TaskScheduler in C#?

I think this approach is probably correct, but when I try it I get a confusing error message:

Task Scheduler 2.0 (1.2) does not support setting this property. You must use an InteractiveToken in order to have the task run in the current user session.

The code I am using is as follows:

    public static void ScheduleTask(string machineName, string taskName, string taskAccount, string password)
    {
        using (TaskService ts = new TaskService(machineName))
        {
            TaskDefinition td = ts.NewTask();

            td.Principal.RunLevel = TaskRunLevel.Highest;
            td.Principal.UserId = WindowsIdentity.GetCurrent().Name;
            td.Principal.LogonType = TaskLogonType.InteractiveToken;

            td.Settings.MultipleInstances = TaskInstancesPolicy.IgnoreNew;
            td.Settings.DisallowStartIfOnBatteries = false;
            td.Settings.StopIfGoingOnBatteries = false;
            td.Settings.StartWhenAvailable = true;
            //td.Settings.RunOnlyIfLoggedOn = true;
            td.Settings.Enabled = true;
            td.Settings.Hidden = false;
            td.Settings.AllowHardTerminate = true;
            td.Settings.ExecutionTimeLimit = new TimeSpan();

            var tt = new SessionStateChangeTrigger();
            tt.StartBoundary = DateTime.Now.AddMinutes(1);
            tt.UserId = taskAccount;
            tt.StateChange = TaskSessionStateChangeType.RemoteConnect;
            tt.Repetition.Interval = TimeSpan.FromMinutes(1);
            tt.Repetition.StopAtDurationEnd = false;
            td.Triggers.Add(tt);

            td.Actions.Add("notepad.exe", "c:\\test.log");

            ts.RootFolder.RegisterTaskDefinition(taskName, td, TaskCreation.CreateOrUpdate, taskAccount, password, TaskLogonType.Password, null);
        }
    }

If I run this code with a valid server,user, etc. it generates a task w/o a problem. If I comment in the 'RunOnlyIfLoggedOn' parameter, it generates the error I previously mentioned. Note that I am setting the LogonType property to TaskLogonType.InteractiveToken, so there must be something else that I am missing.

score 3 · Accepted Answer · answered May 03 '17 at 18:09

3

Ok there is the solution:

The register task definition call needs to have its TaskLogonType set to Interactive Token. Just setting the TaskDefinition Principal Logon type to use an interactive Token will not work.

RunOnlyIfLoggedOn appears to only work for earlier versions of the task scheduler (v1, on systems like w2k3, etc)

answered May 03 '17 at 18:09

Roger Hill

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I know its been a while but can you provide any code samples on how did you solve this problem please. – bennygenel Jul 09 '18 at 09:57
@bennygenel I'm guessing this: `ts.RootFolder.RegisterTaskDefinition(taskName, td, TaskCreation.CreateOrUpdate, taskAccount, password, TaskLogonType.InteractiveToken, null);` – Pierre Nortje Sep 12 '18 at 13:04

How to set “run only if logged in” and “run as” with TaskScheduler in C#?

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