New features of the Scheduled Tasks Control Panel item that are included in
Windows XP Service Pack 2 and in Windows XP Tablet PC Edition 2005
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/883605

On Sat, 2 Sep 2006 20:40:01 -0700, Ayush <ayush[X]maan.j  at  

I think I know what this problem is   ;-)

In XP before SP2, no Tasks would run if the account password was
blank.  You could enter such Tasks, and you'd see no error messges;
they just wouldn't run!  The Task Manager needs a password and takes
"blank" as nothing entered, so when the password really IS "blank" it
is impossible to match it.  So Tasks behave as if pwd is wrong.

This is really nasty, because it compelled users to use an account
password when they didn't want to.  So they'd use something trivial,
and that in turn would turn on XP Pro's "hidden admin share" feature.

Because the account password was no longer blank, XP Pro would expose
ALL of EVERY HD volume for full access via File & Print Sharing -
potentially allowing any Internet entity to do anything anywhere on
the PC.  Sure, the shares are "hidden", but that just means the user
doesn't see them or realize the risk; the names of the shares are
always the same, you don't even have to guess.  

With a weak password, it's trivially easy to break in, steal files,
drop malware, whatever you like.

SP2 helped this by allowing "run when logged on" to bypass the
password check, with the added advantage that changing the user
account password no longer stops existing Tasks from running.

But that's not this poster's problem, because he's getting an error
when he tries to enter the Task, not when it is run.

His failure pattern I see often, after this scenario:
 - you change the PC or user account name
 - you try to work with Tasks, e.g. edit or copy an old one, etc.

What now happens is that the machine/user same that pre-populates the
Task dialog is now at variance with the real machine and user account
name.  It can't resolve when the Task is entered, so you get the
error.  What is more annoying, though, is that you can manually fiddle
with the machine/user name as much as you like, but chances are you
will never get XP to accept the Task you're trying to enter!

The workaround is to create an arbitrary new Task.  When you do so,
that Task will be pre-populated with the correct machine/user name,
and will work.  You can then delete that Task, go back to edit other
Tasks, and you will now find them pre-populated with the correct
machine/user name and they will now work when (re-)entered.

 Drugs are usually safe.  Inject? (Y/n)