What is the Windows version of cron

Question

A Google search turned up software that performs the same functions as cron  but nothing built into Windows   I m running Windows XP Professional  but advice for any version of Windows would be potentially helpful to someone   Is there also a way to invoke this feature  which based on answers is called the Task Scheduler  programatically or via the command line

User · Answer

Use the Windows Task Scheduler to schedule tasks over time and dates

User · Answer

If you prefer good ol  cron  CRONw is the way to go   Supported systems    Windows 2000  any version     works   Windows XP  SP 2              works   Windows Server 2003           works   Windows NT 4  SP 6            should work but not tested   Windows 3 11  Windows 95    Windows 98  Windows ME    Windows XP beneath SP2        not supported by design

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In addition to Windows Task Scheduler you also have  at  on Windows  I m not sure how it differs from Task Scheduler besides the fact that it has a command line interface

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The  at  command       The AT command schedules commands and   programs to run on a computer at a   specified time and date  The Schedule   service must be running to use the AT   command

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For the original question  asking about Windows XP  and Windows 7   Windows Task Scheduler  For command-line usage  you can schedule with the AT command   For newer Microsoft OS versions  Windows Server 2012   Windows 8  look at the schtasks command line utility  If using PowerShell  the Scheduled Tasks Cmdlets in Windows PowerShell are made for scripting

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The closest equivalent are the Windows Scheduled Tasks  Control Panel -  Scheduled Tasks   though they are a far  far cry from cron   The biggest difference  to me  is that they require a user to be logged into the Windows box  and a user account  with password and all   which makes things a nightmare if your local security policy requires password changes periodically  I also think it is less flexible than cron as far as setting intervals for items to run

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The At command is now deprecated  you can use the SCHTASKS

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Zcron is available free for personal use

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There is NNCron for Windows  IT can schedule jobs to be run periodically

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You can use the Scheduled-Tasks API in PowerShell along with a config json file for parameters input  I guess the minimum limitation is 5 minutes  A sample tutorial for very basic Schedule Tasks creation via APIs You can use the schtasks exe via cmd too  I could see the minute modifier limitation to 1 minute on executing schtasks exe  Create     Anyways AT is now deprecated      Anyways  I am working on a tool to behave like CRON  I will update here if it is successfull

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Check out the excellent Cronical program at https   github com mgefvert Cronical  It is a  NET program that reads a text file with unix-like cron lines  Very convenient to use  It will send emails if stdout just like unix cron  It even supports acting as the service runner

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pycron is close match on Windows   The following entries are supported   1    Minute  0-59  2    Hour  2-24  3    Day of month  1-31  4    Month  1-12  Jan  Feb  etc  5    Day of week  0-6  0   Sunday  1   Monday etc or Sun  Mon  etc  6    User that the command will run as 7    Command to execute

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Is there also a way to invoke this feature  which based on answers is called the Task Scheduler  programatically          Task scheduler API on MSDN

User · Answer

Not exactly a Windows version  however you can use Cygwin s crontab  For install instructions  see here  here

User · Answer

The Windows  AT  command is very similar to cron  It is available through the command line

[windows] What is the Windows version of cron?

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