How To Create a Desktop Shortcut For Scheduled Tasks On Windows 10
Scheduled tasks, as the name implies, are automated tasks that run at a given time, or when a pre-defined event is executed. That is how they are generally used but a scheduled task is often used to accomplish a myriad of other things and that might require running it from a more convenient place such as your desktop. Here’s how you can create a desktop shortcut for scheduled tasks.
SPOILER ALERT: Scroll down and watch the video tutorial at the end of this article.
Desktop Shortcut For Scheduled Tasks
The process is fairly simple. All you need to do is have your scheduled task already configured, and enabled. You need to know the exact name of the scheduled task in order to configure the desktop shortcut for it.
Once you have all this ready, you can create a desktop shortcut for the task.
Go to your desktop and right-click on an empty area. From the context menu, go to New>Shortcut.
In the Location field, enter the following but replace TaskName with the name of the task you want to run. Make sure the name is enclosed inside the quote marks or it will not run.
C:\Windows\System32\schtasks.exe /run /tn "TaskName"
Click Next, and the shortcut will be created. It won’t have an icon so if you want to, you can assign one yourself. Download an icon file i.e., and image should be in the ICO file format. If you have a PNG image that you want to use as the icon, you can use a free app like IrfanView to resize and convert it to an ICO file.
Right-click the shortcut you created and select Properties from the context menu. In the Properties window, go to the General tab and click the Change icon button at the bottom. Accept the on-screen prompt and select the ICO file you want to use for the shortcut.
That’s all you need to do to set the shortcut up, and make it look good. Simply run it and the task will be triggered. Running a task this way will run whatever you’ve set up as the ‘Action’ without the conditions of its ‘Trigger’ needing to be met.
You can move the shortcut anywhere you want. You have to create it on the desktop but once it’s been created, there is nothing stopping you from moving it elsewhere. Also, if you need to, you can pin the shortcut to the Start menu, or to the taskbar. It all depends on how you need to run it, and what is the most convenient way for you to do it.
I know it’s been four years but the answer is scheduled tasks have account credentials linked to them and can be triggered by any user, even a non-admin. Creating a shortcut to a command works if it’s your personal machine, but if I want to give a help desk tech a way to trigger an admin task on demand, say a sync with some cloud service that has to run as a particular user, this is a much better alternative.
Remember on laptops to go to Properties and uncheck “Only run when connected to AC”, otherwise this will work only with the charger connected!
In my case the shortcut would not run without a \ before the task folder and name eg C:\Windows\System32\schtasks.exe /run /tn “\Taskfolder\TaskName”
A shortcut to a task seems circuitous and this article seems only to demonstrate an inferior alternative. Why not simply examine the task to get the command and parameters and create a direct shortcut to the command?
I think a scheduled task can run with elevated privileges, even on remote computers if you use a domain account that has elevated privileges on that remote computer, and the shortcut would not reveal the password for that account, as a standard shortcut would have to do.
1. There may be regularly scheduled tasks which you want to be able to manually kickstart from time to time (for some good reason or other)
2. ‘Directly’ starting a command (especially a powershell or batch script) will usually create a window which then gets focus. This is sometimes not desirable.