thepip3r's IT and Scripting Blog: How to Configure a Scheduled Task to run every X Seconds

Title: How to Configure a Scheduled Task to run every X Seconds
Description: Windows Task Scheduler only allows for easy configuration of the quickest run-time of every 5 minutes (Trigger Configuration: Daily occurrence with specified start-time and Task Repeat set to 5 minutes). The workaround for this problem is to configure X number of TRIGGERS to achieve the desired task-execution frequency.

As an example, I wrote a network polling mechanism for a small/closed-network to determine host uptime. The customer wanted a frequency greater than every 5 minutes--actually they wanted it to run every 10 seconds. So, I had to be able to create a mechanism to support this. I found some posts talking about Microsoft wanting anything < 5 minutes should be a Windows Service--but I shouldn't have to write compiled code with installers just to run a few-line PowerShell script. So the easy answer is to configure tons of triggers to run with nearly identical configuration:

The key duplicated Trigger configuration parameters can be seen in the image, and are:

Set the schedule setting to Daily.
Ensure the recurrence is set to 1 day.
Check the box to 'Repeat task every' and set it to 5 minutes and for a duration of 1 day.
Ensure the Trigger is Enabled.

For every additional Trigger, increment the Start time from the previous Trigger by X mins or secs, depending on the desired interval. In my case, the customer wanted my polling script to get metrics every 10 seconds so I had 30 Triggers configured with the following start times:

2017-09-11T00:00:00

2017-09-11T00:00:10

2017-09-11T00:00:20

2017-09-11T00:00:30

2017-09-11T00:00:40

2017-09-11T00:00:50

2017-09-11T00:01:00

2017-09-11T00:01:10

2017-09-11T00:01:20

2017-09-11T00:01:30

2017-09-11T00:01:40

2017-09-11T00:01:50

2017-09-11T00:02:00

2017-09-11T00:02:10

2017-09-11T00:02:20

2017-09-11T00:02:30

2017-09-11T00:02:40

2017-09-11T00:02:50

2017-09-11T00:03:00

2017-09-11T00:03:10

2017-09-11T00:03:20

2017-09-11T00:03:30

2017-09-11T00:03:40

2017-09-11T00:03:50

2017-09-11T00:04:00

2017-09-11T00:04:10

2017-09-11T00:04:20

2017-09-11T00:04:30

2017-09-11T00:04:40

2017-09-11T00:04:50

...which gave me the desired 10 second intervals to run the script. Also, notice that I set the very first Trigger to start at Midnight. This was intentional and served two purposes:

It's easier for me to count by 5s/10s, starting from zero. ;)
I wanted to set this time in the past so that one of the remaining settings would be relevant for testing purposes (see below).

The final settings that are used to test all of this is on the Task itself. Under Settings, ensure the following two settings are checked:

Allow task to be run on demand
Run task as soon as possible after a scheduled start is missed

In this way, once you click OK to the Task's creation, it should start firing which is what I wanted.

Below is the Task I used to test this configuration before using it in production. It simply runs at the specified interval and writes the current datetime to a text file on your desktop so you can see the incremental interval. It might save you a few dozen clicks in the Trigger creation interface.

To import it, simply save it as an .xml file and in Task Scheduler, right-click Import the file.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-16"?>

</RegistrationInfo>