Windows Task Scheduler doesn't start batch file task

Make sure you set the 'Start in' and 'Program/script' options correctly. If your file address is: C:\Temp\foo.bat, set the 'start in' option to 'C:\Temp' and the 'Program/script' option to 'foo.bat'.

To set the 'Start in' option: Right click task in the task scheduler > Properties > Actions > Edit.

If this alone doesn't work then try moving the .bat file to a directory with basic permissions (maybe a shared directory for example).

I had a problem where my .bat file was located in a folder with some restrictive permissions on it, so that only my user account could access it. Even though I had set up the task scheduler to use my credentials it still failed. Moving the .bat file to another directory sorted the issue.

Wasted a lot of time on this silly issue!

add a cd command to where your batch file resides at the first line of your batch file and see if it resolves the issue.

cd D:\wherever\yourBatch\fileIs

TIP: please use absolute paths, relative paths ideally should not be an issue, but scheduler has an difficult time understanding them.

This is a pretty old thread but the problem is still the same -

I tried multiple things, none of them worked -

1. Added a Start In Path (without quotes)
2. Removed the complete path of the batch file in the Program/Script field etc
3. Added C:\Windows\system32\cmd.exe to the Program and added /c myscript.bat to the arguments field.

This is what worked for me -

Program/Script Field - cmd

Add Arguments - /c myscript.bat

Start In : Path to myscript.bat

I had the same problem. I believe it's a privilege problem. If you have "Run only when user is logged on" selected, then it won't happen.

You've hopefully figured it out by now, but I wanted to register it here for the next person who has wasted hours on this.

I was running this on a Windows Server OS. I worked for hours, only to find that the problem was that I had checked the "Run with highest privileges" checkbox. When checked on, it removes all drive mappings. And my .bat file was on the network.