Discussion: 22H2 Task Scheduler Bug

[AeonX]

I downloaded the ISO from the Microsoft website using the User-Agent trick (actually I had read about it before but had completely forgotten) the build of it is 19045.2006. In this build I was able to replicate the bug in VM.

Apparently the problem is with the tasks in \Microsoft\Windows\SettingSync

If you disable BackgroundUploadTask (needs NSudo or PowerRun) and NetworkStateChangeTask (only needed if connected to the internet) the bat file manages to complete, otherwise not.

So apparently this has been fixed in the latest updates.

 

[Hellbovine]

Nice work man! So they fixed it silently so it wouldn't be added to the growing list of 22H2 bugs I wonder what KB it was included in. I wager we can probably fix this via reg keys or by disabling that task with NTLite too. I'll put that on my to-do list and look into it later. I'm still not in any hurry to move to 22H2 though with all the other major bugs still pending.

 

[Necrosaro]

Nice work man! So they fixed it silent so it wouldn't be added to the growing list of 22H2 bugs I wonder what KB it was included in. I wager we can probably fix this via reg keys or by disabling that task with NTLite too. I'll put that on my to-do list and look into it later. I'm still not in any hurry to move to 22H2 though with all the other major bugs still pending.

I have not run my task scheduler for a long time, been wanting to do a rundown through all the tasks. Unsure if my system has the update since I have not checked. If not hearing what kB it was would be helpful since I ended up removing the windows update and relying on Ntlite to do the work for me.

Thanks everyone

 

[Hellbovine]

I have not run my task scheduler for a long time, been wanting to do a rundown through all the tasks...

This reminded me, I meant to answer your question on another thread about this batch file, and I forgot, sorry. You asked if running this file would mess with how you configured your tasks (disabled) and the answer is no, it won't. The task scheduler will only run through the tasks that are already enabled and tell them to get to work, and all the disabled tasks will stay disabled.

However, on a related note, some tasks are designed to enable things. That's actually why Windows Update continues to remedy itself if people disable the services, because there's a task that checks the services and enables them. The previous paragraph still applies though, if this remediation task is disabled then it won't run when Task Scheduler turns on.

 

[tortadefrango97]

This reminded me, I meant to answer your question on another thread about this bat file, and I forgot, sorry. You asked if running this bat file would mess with how you configured your tasks (disabled) and the answer is no, it won't. The task scheduler will only run through the tasks that are enabled and tell them to get to work. All the disabled tasks will stay disabled.

However, on a related note, some tasks are designed to re-enable things. That's actually why Windows Update continues to remedy itself if people disable the services, because there's a task that checks the services and enables them. But, the previous paragraph still applies, if this remediation task is disabled then it won't run when task scheduler kicks off.

Hellbovine, would you know what tasks are those that re-enable the services? I'm looking to disable some tasks and I also disabled some services, so it would be nice to know what those tasks are to disable them too...

 

[Hellbovine]

I haven't spent a ton of time dissecting the tasks yet, but it is pretty easy to navigate though if you want to investigate. Here's the steps on W10, I'm not sure if it changes for W11: Start > Windows Administrative Tools > Task Scheduler > Task Scheduler Library.

Inside there should be about 100 folders, but if I remember correctly there is one literally called "Windows Update" and "Defender" which are some of the biggest offenders in self-healing. The tasks inside the Windows Update folder will have names like USO (Update Session Orchestrator) and another one has the word "Medic" in it. I'm not at my PC right now, to see all the details up close.

Some of these require you to take ownership of permissions to toggle, so the easier way is to change them in NTLite, since it has a scheduled tasks section. You could also check out this guide (link) on how to pause Windows Update forever, as another solution.

 

[tortadefrango97]

I haven't spent a ton of time dissecting the tasks yet, but it is pretty easy to navigate though if you want to investigate. Here's the steps on W10, I'm not sure if it changes for W11:

Start > Windows Administrative Tools > Task Scheduler > Task Scheduler Library

Inside there should be like 100 folders, but I think if I remember correctly there is one literally called "Windows update" and "Defender" which are some of the biggest offenders in self-healing. The tasks inside the windows update folder will have names like USO (update session orchestrator) and another one has the word "medic" in it. I'm not at my PC right now to check, sorry.

Some of these require you to take ownership of permissions to toggle, so the easier way is to change them in NTLite, since it has a scheduled tasks section. You could also check out this guide on how to pause Windows update forever, as another solution for some people (link).

Yes, I already disabled some scheduled tasks that from what I researched are safe to disable, I'll take a look at those related to windows update, although I didn't want to break windows updates if I wanted to use it.

But from what I understand these tasks that re-enable the services will only be executed if I use windows update.

Yes, I'm already using the changes from your windows update guide, btw thanks a lot for the guide, apparently it's working, at least on the virtual machine, I'll test it on my real machine in the future.

 

[Hellbovine]

But from what I understand these tasks that re-enable the services will only be executed if I use windows update.

Not quite. If you manually initiate the task scheduler, it will run through every task that is enabled and tell them to do their jobs. You manually start this by using the command in the .bat file in the first post in this thread.

The task scheduler will also initiate when Windows determines that the user has been inactive for X consecutive minutes, as well as on scheduled dates and times. This part I believe is a little more complicated, because I don't think it's fully documented what the operating system views as being inactive, because it's been proven over and over again that background activities will still occur even if someone is doing something intensive, such as playing a video game in full screen. This was the idea behind the new "Game Mode" to help prevent these issues, but that whole feature got butchered because it was too buggy and now it's a shell of its former self.

So, what I'm getting at is it's not just running Windows Update that will cause those things like the healing tasks to initiate. Windows is getting more complicated and there's so many services, tasks, and timestamp checks that it is examining all the time, which can initiate these kinds of activities. Windows also tracks how many reboots you've performed, to determine when it should perform some activities.

 

[AeonX]

because it's been proven over and over again that background activities will still occur even if someone is doing something intensive

That depends on the task. Defrag for example stops instantly as soon as I move the mouse. But .NET Framework NGEN will run forcefully even if you have the PC in heavy use after a while without running. This did not happen on older builds of Windows 10 and Win7/8.1.

So in fact we have less and less control over Windows with each new version. Which makes me seriously think about migrating to Linux for good. What stops me are mainly the games and emulators, as well as the nvidia drivers.

Looking at the Triggers tab in task scheduler you know what starts each task. This can run when any user logs in, at a scheduled time, when idle, with an event (which appear in Event Viewer) among others. However some have obfuscated triggers (Custom Trigger) and cannot be read. Some services have triggers as well.

 

[MurderChicken]

Dang, so late to the discussion, but I appreciate so much the hard work you are doing, Hellbovine. Most of the tweaks or settings failed to work in VirtualBox, which doesn't surprise me. So going to run a test on an actual hard drive tonight. I am sick of Windows 10 22H2 because it just breaks things for me. As for the ISO download, see below:

Found this guide here: How To Download A Windows 10 ISO Basically, you hit F12 to bring up an ugly resource GUI, but at the top right, you will see 3 dots. Click on that and choose More Tools, then select Network Conditions, then at the very bottom you will see User Agent with a blue checkbox next to it that says "use browser default" that you have to uncheck. Then you select the dropdown menu below and choose Android 4.0.2 user-agent. Refresh the page and hit F12 again to get back to the normal view and you see the dropdown menu to download an ISO.

 

[garlin]

Found this guide here: How To Download A Windows 10 ISO Basically, you hit F12 to bring up an ugly resource GUI, but at the top right, you will see 3 dots. Click on that and choose More Tools, then select Network Conditions, then at the very bottom you will see User Agent with a blue checkbox next to it that says "use browser default" that you have to uncheck. Then you select the dropdown menu below and choose Android 4.0.2 user-agent. Refresh the page and hit F12 again to get back to the normal view and you see the dropdown menu to download an ISO.

Rufus has a built-in PowerShell script to generate the direct download URL's for most Windows ISO's, going back to Win 8.1.
While the User-Agent trick still works, you're dependent on MS not removing the specific download page(s).

 

[MurderChicken]

I'm so bad at this stuff. I don't know how to use Rufus to download isos. Could you direct me to the setting in Rufus, maybe via screenshot? There is no download menu selection under the Select button. Thanks! Edit: Found out that I have to change the update section to Daily, close it, then reopen it.