Windows Task Scheduler monitoring

When you need this

A script works interactively but the overnight export is missing: Task Scheduler uses a different account, working directory or permissions. Local history helps investigate, but cannot alert you when the whole computer is offline. An external monitor expects completion on schedule.

How to connect

1. 1

   Create a cron monitor with the task schedule, timezone and grace period. For daily runs at 03:00, use 0 3 * * *.

2. 2

   Save the wrapper below as C:\Jobs\tickwatch-run.ps1. Set your ping URL and job script path. Configure Task Scheduler to launch the wrapper with powershell.exe.

3. 3

   Enable a monitor runtime limit and alerts. Test a successful run, exit 7 in a test script and a missed run.

Ready-to-use example

Requires Windows PowerShell 5.1 and outbound HTTPS. The job must return a nonzero exit code on failure: an error suppressed inside the job may leave exit code 0. Set the working directory and account permissions in Task Scheduler; keep the ping key private.

$ErrorActionPreference = 'Stop'
$ping = 'https://ping.tickwatch.dev/YOUR_PING_KEY'
$rid = [guid]::NewGuid().ToString()
function Send-Signal([string]$suffix) {
    try {
        $url = $ping + $suffix + "?rid=$rid"
        Invoke-WebRequest -Uri $url -Method Post -UseBasicParsing -TimeoutSec 5 -ErrorAction Stop | Out-Null
    } catch { } # A monitoring outage must not stop the job.
}
$code = 1
Send-Signal '/start'
try {
    & "$env:SystemRoot\System32\WindowsPowerShell\v1.0\powershell.exe" -NoProfile -NonInteractive -File 'C:\Jobs\backup.ps1'
    $code = $LASTEXITCODE
} catch {
    $code = 1
} finally {
    if ($code -eq 0) { Send-Signal '' } else { Send-Signal '/fail' }
}
exit $code

powershell.exe -NoProfile -NonInteractive -File "C:\Jobs\tickwatch-run.ps1"

Check before going live

• Test under the actual task account without an interactive desktop. A task configured to run only while the user is logged on may miss overnight runs.

• Forced termination may skip finally. The /start signal and maximum runtime check cover a missing completion.

• Validate the output: export size, existence and storage write. Exit code 0 only confirms what the script reports.

Common questions