schtasks.exe-the application failed to initialize

[wheelbig]

Greetings Gurus (bowing low),

I have a new Vista (sp1) system and whenever I shut down /restart I receive the following error message.

schtasks.exe

The application failed to initialize properly (0Xc0000142) Click OK to terminate.

I'm guessing by the name of the file it's some sort of scheduled task. However, I haven't scheduled any tasks. To be honest, I couldn't tell you whether the error was always there or if it showed up after I did a cleaning with ccleaner. Any help would be appreciated (low bow).
Thanks.

 

[Elvandil]

There are a lot of scheduled tasks, but you may have to look through them and see if one got scheduled for shudown somehow. Under the View menu, enable Hidden Tasks to see them all.

Run gpedit.msc and see if any logoff or shutdown scripts exist and are active under Windows Settings in both sections.

 

[wheelbig]

There are a lot of scheduled tasks, but you may have to look through them and see if one got scheduled for shudown somehow. Under the View menu, enable Hidden Tasks to see them all.

Run gpedit.msc and see if any logoff or shutdown scripts exist and are active under Windows Settings in both sections.

I couldn't find anything. There's nothing triggered by shut down. When I tried running gpedit.msc i got an error message saying windows couldn't find gpedit.msc. This computer was refurbished. Don't know if that has anything to do with it. Anything else I can do? Thanks.

 

[Jacee]

Check to see if your system is set to run automatic backups.

 

[wheelbig]

Check to see if your system is set to run automatic backups.

No, Vista isn't set to run automatic backups. There's a button on the front to backup everything on a second internal hard drive but it's on demand.

 

[wheelbig]

Anyone else have any ideas?

 

[Elvandil]

See if it's listed here: Autoruns

 

[wheelbig]

No, it's not under autoruns.

 

[Rich-M]

Is there a service you shut down, uninstalled or disabled still running in startup?
(Run,msconfig,ok,startup)

 

[Elvandil]

It still looks to me like a mis-scheduled app. Take another look through all scheduled tasks. Make sure that hidden tasks are also shown under the View menu.

Look at the schedule for all of them. Find any that may be scheduled to run at logoff or shutdown. Most tasks scheduled for those events will not run because the machine is shutting down.

It may be a thankless task, but you could also search the registry for instances of schtasks.exe. There may be far too many to make any sense out of it, or you may see a place where it is initialized on logoff.