Task Scheduler forgets passwords unless 'do not remember password' is selected

Mark R

Diamond Member
Oct 9, 1999
8,513
16
81
This confused the heck out of me for quite a long time.

I was there wondering why my scheduled administrative tasks (e.g. TRIMming my SSD) wouldn't run on a schedule.

They'd work, until I rebooted - and then the task would fail to start with an obscure error code 2147943726.

Seriously, who'd have thought that the solution to Windows forgetting the password at reboot is to select 'Do not store password'.

I can see why this is done, and it makes perfect sense (storing the password is insecure, as it means someone with access to the drive can recover it - so it isn't saved to disk, and therefore is lost after a reboot. But storing some password-less pre-authenticated local token is acceptable for local use). But there was nothing in the documentation to explain this.

The dozens of forum threads about this where MS volunteer support staff go leading people on wild goose chases, just illustrate my point.

So, seriously, when you've got obscure and counter-intuitive settings like this, it would be really helpful to document them.
 

Gooberlx2

Lifer
May 4, 2001
15,381
6
91
So...selecting 'do not remember password' allows the task scheduler to remember the password after reboot?

Is this Vista/W7? Maybe that's why my scheduled admin tasks (like a robocopy) always failed.

Yeah, definitely counter-intuitive.