Scheduled Task Not Starting on Windows Server 2022 Until User Logs In

Question

I’m experiencing an issue with a PowerShell script that creates and starts a scheduled task. This script works without any issues on Windows Server 2019. However, on Windows Server 2022, the task is created successfully and shows up with the status Ready, but it does not start as scheduled until a user manually logs in to the server. Below code runs a powershell remoting session.

Here’s the PowerShell script I'm using:

$action = New-ScheduledTaskAction -Execute $ExeName -Argument $Arguments
$settings = New-ScheduledTaskSettingsSet
$adminGroup = (Get-LocalGroup -SID 'S-1-5-32-544').Name
$principal = New-ScheduledTaskPrincipal -GroupID $adminGroup -RunLevel Highest
$task = New-ScheduledTask -Action $action -Settings $settings -Principal $principal
Register-ScheduledTask -TaskName $TaskName -InputObject $task -Force | Out-Null
Start-ScheduledTask -TaskName $TaskName -AsJob | Out-Null

• $ExeName and $Arguments are set to the correct executable and arguments.
• The task is configured to run with highest privileges under the Administrators group.

The task appears in Task Scheduler with the status Ready, but it doesn’t trigger until a user logs in, which defeats the purpose of automation.

What I've Tried:

• Verified that the task works as expected on Windows Server 2019 with the same settings.

Additional Information:

• I am unable to use any account other than Administrators since the executable requires it.
• The server has all the latest updates installed.
• Running PowerShell 5.1 for this script.

Is there any difference in task scheduling behavior between Windows Server 2019 and 2022 when tasks are created and started from a PowerShell remoting session? Any help or suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Answer 1

Not sure how to adjust this in PowerShell, but for the scheduled task, you need to choose "Run whether user is logged on or not", which will ask for credentials.