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Scheduled Tasks

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by blackcurrant 1 view

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Hi

Does anyone have any problems running Scheduled Tasks?

I have set up a Scheduled Task which is supposed to run Norton Antivirus once a week. Norton Antivirus is supposed to run at 9pm every wednesday. The task was configured from within NAV.

It runs under my domain account. My account is a member of the Administrator group for the computer on which the task is scheduled to run. My account is also listed as having full-control in the task's security properties tab. My account has full control over all the files and folders on the computer.

The task is scheduled to run when I am not logged-on. Accordingly, the check box next to 'Run only if logged on' is not checked.

But, the task will not run.

I have checked the event logs to see if there was an entry explaining why the task did not run, but nothing is present.

Does anyone know how I may get this task to run? It used to run, but since I reinstalled Windows, bought the latest version of NAV and installed it, I cannot get it to run.

Can anyone help with this please?

17 replies

by blackcurrant

Hi, P.J. and thanks again for answering. I used to be able to run this task when logged off. For example, when I leave the office, I log off, then log on using an account that has authority to download and distribute email (and nothing else), and the virus scan would run once a week under this account, but using my credentials with no problem.

by hal 9000

Well I'm using Norton's AV as part of my AV setup and it runs perfectly I know this because it takes about 4 hours to do a complete scan on this system as well as the One Button Scan which is part of System Works but you do have to be logged in at the time as the current user.

I hope that helps.

Col

by blackcurrant

Hi, HAL 2000, and thanks again for another answer! I too use the product you mention on my home machine - and I have no problems with it either. But, as I say above, this used to run fine.

Maybe, Scheduled Tasks is setup to run differently under the new version.

by dryflies

What version? my symantec (norton) anti virus schedules itself. it is configured in the antivirus program, not in the scheduled tasks applet. So if you have that option, use it. On the other hand, how is your power management set up? if power management is set to hibernate after a certain amount of time, your scheduled task will not run from hibernation. try scheduling for a time when you will be around and be there to monitor the startup of the scan. the other thing I have found is that after a password is changed you have to change the password in the scheduler as well -- even if you change it to the same password.
Please remember to rate this answer.

by blackcurrant

Thanks, dryflies, this was a good answer.

I am using NAV interface to set the schedule, and have to supply my password when I set it. Also, when I edited it, I was prompted to supply the password again. I have also deleted the task, and recreated it.

Also, my machine is set to be 'never off', so hibernation is not enabled.

Shame to reject this answer as it was good.

by w2ktechman

Reinstall Norton. I use Symantec AV, and it seems to have a few bugs where something just stops working (usually AutoUpdate). The easiest fix is to uninstall, reboot, reinstall. If that fails, maybe uninstall, reboot, clean the reg., and then reinstall

by blackcurrant

Hi w2ktechman, this was one of the first things I tried. I have been using Symantec's products for quite a while now, and as you say, reinstallation often solves many issues.

Unfortunately, it has not helped in this case.

by sue t

Have you tried setting it up to run as a service? I have to do this with the anti virus we use and have it run under a user that has administrator rights.

by blackcurrant

Hi Sue T, thanks for answering. I have searched for information about this but can only find references to configuring NAV 2001/2 as a service - nothing for NAV 2005, which is the version I am currently using.

Please post back if you have any more information about this, also, please see my response to dryflies, below...

by dryflies

So give me the points anyway :-)

What happened when you set up the task to run when you are around? check your event log. look for clues! There should at least be something in the system event log that says the scheduled task could not bew run because.... or somethin similar. When an scheduled task fails to run for some reason it shows up in the scheduled task window as having failed. does it do that? what happens when you try to do a manual scan.
Is your licensing up to date for NAV?

by blackcurrant

Ha ha, it may come to that!

To answer your questions: If I schedule the scan to run when I am logged on it runs fine. There is nothing in the event log.

BUT: The main NAV GUI shows my last full scan as being performed when I manually started it. Today I checked the NAV activity log and discovered an entry stating a scan had started at the scheduled time.

This is very worrying. Today I submitted an item to Symantec for examination. The file arrived in an email (which is checked for viruses), I also performed a manual scan on the file which said the file was not infected, yet the response I got from Symantec was that it was infected with a trojan Arrrrrgggghhhhh

I have been using Symantec's products for a long time and have never had a problem like this before.

Thanks again for taking the time to answer - if you have any further suggestions, please post.

by sue t

This may be far fetched but do you possibly have a virus/trojan that is affecting your Norton anti virus and it is something that infected your machine before a fix was available for it? Have you tried making an emergency anti virus set on another machine and then booting to the NAV CD and using the newest virus definitions available? As I said, this is a long shot but could possible be worth a try. I have found that since I updated to XP sp2 my live update no longer works no matter what I have tried so I have to use Symantecs intelligent updater which is a pain but better than a virus. I will be interested in seeing what ends up being the fix for your problem.

by blackcurrant

Hi Sue T, thanks again for answering. I have tried all sorts of things to get this to work and have also tried a full scan using their latest definitions. I think I will need to give them a ring...

Thanks for your input.

by sue t

Are you scheduling this completely within Norton or are you setting the preferences of what you want done in Norton but doing the actual scheduling through Windows XPs scheduled tasks? I have found that I have to set the schedule in the Norton program and not set anything for it in Windows scheduled tasks. I have run Norton for years without any problems but I have found that the 2005 version is consistently having problems and I have tried everything Symantec suggested to fix the problems. I hope they just had a bad version and next years will no longer have these problems but anyway I don't have problems with scans running as long as I schedule them within the Norton program.

by blackcurrant

Hi Sue T, thanks again for your input. Apologies for the delay in rating your answer.

I have awarded you the points because you persisted with this. I still have no idea why the schedule is not working. I use the Norton program interface to schedule the scans, which does not work, and I have also tried modifying them and creating new scans though XP alone.

I also have been using Symantec products for a long time and this is the first time that I have not been able to resolve an issue.

Thanks again for yours and everybody elses help with this.

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