[Nonapeptide]

I just had something really weird happen to me with scheduled tasks on a Server 2003 machine. The short story: I completed the task that I set out to do by using a bizarre work-around. I'm not sure what the deal is, but maybe someone else can contribute or benefit from this scenario.


The environment:
Windows Server 2003 SP2 machine. Relatively fresh installation (four months). Not too much running on it; AVG AntiMalware, Genie Backup Manager Server 8, and SQL Server 2005. This is in a workgroup, not a domain.


The problem:
While logged into an administrator account (We'll call this account "BKPACCT"), I created a scheduled task to run my backup software. Later, I noticed that the task was not running at the scheduled times. Then, From the "Administrator" account (not the BKPACCT user), I noticed that the "Run only if logged on" box in the task's properties was ticked. "Well duh," I muttered to myself. I unticked it and was asked to provide a username and password. I typed SERVER\BKPACCT and then put that account's password in. When I click Apply to exit the task's properties box, I am greeted with this error:

An error occurred while attempting to set task account information.

0x80070005 Access is denied. You do not have permission to perform the requested operation.

Okay. That sounds fun. A Google search revealed some interesting KB articles, most notably: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/816731 All the KBs and forum discussions point to a permissions issue. Basically, if the user that is editing the task doesn't have the correct permissions, or the user that the task is being given to use doesn't have permission, or the user account that your supplying doesn't have a password then you get that error. None of those things are pertinent in my situation.


The solution
Ignoring the maxim that says "The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results," I did the same thing over again. After a few tries I was surprised to notice that if I supplied the user account's password, and then clicked "okay" to get out of the password box, and then "okay" on the task's properties sheet I did NOT get the error message.

:: triple take ::

"Say what?!" I tried that again, this time on another scheduled task. I supplied the password, hit okay to return to the properties sheet and this time hit apply. Wham! I got the error message. I retraced my steps, but clicked okay instead of apply. Voila! It worked.

Skeptical, I logged out BKPACCT and ran the scheduled task. It worked! It logged in as BKPACCT without a problem!

How could clicking Apply cause a problem, but hitting Okay be fine? I didn't find this situation anywhere on the interweb yet.

[deadite]

Did this error occur logged in as the administrator and the BKPACCT? I know Windows backup data is stored in the users local profile, and your backup software might be similar. In which case, it is most likely a permissions issue. For instance, having permissions to Delete but not modify a file could cause an issue like that, and clicking Apply might modify the file but click OK might overwrite it (delete).

[Nonapeptide]

Thanks for the reply.

Yes, this error occurred in both the Administrator and BKPACCT accounts when I tried to change the properties of the scheduled task.

I did encounter an issue with the backup software creating some preferences in the local user profile in the past. I created a scheduled task within the backup software (Genie Backup Manager Server while logged in as Administrator, but later edited the scheduled task to use BKPACCT to log in with. Genie wouldn't launch because there was some preferences or data of some kind that was placed in the Administrator profile folder that BKPACCT couldn't access. Therefore, I created the next set of scheduled tasks under the BKPACCT account, but then encountered the issue that I wrote about above.

That's a good idea that 'Apply' might modify while 'OK' might overwrite.

[drchrisblair]

I too have had this problem on an XP Pro while setting Tasks.

Originally I was using Vice Versa Pro for scheduling backups and thought maybe this was the issue.

Then I tried scheduling a bat file backup and that too had the same error message.

Could not figure out why I could get some scheduled tasks to work OK while others got the Access denied message.

When I tried "OK" instead of "Apply" all the problems solved - many thanks for such an astute observation.

Next step is to try to find out what is the difference between OK and Apply, and why both buttons are on the same screen,

Good work and thanks again