Is it safe to delete all tasks in task scheduler?

Discussion in 'Windows 7' started by JaguarXJ12, Jun 27, 2010.

  1. JaguarXJ12

    JaguarXJ12 Guest

    Hi

    Got a gaming rig which runs clean untouched Windows 7 Professional x64 which I usually disable most of the crap that get's installed like unnecessary services, features etc. and it's always offline with no updates installed more then the usual DirectX, Visual C++, .NET Framework, drivers etc. installed from an cd-r burned by me.

    Yesterday I played a game in fullscreen mode for a while and when I was done playing and quiting to desktop there had been an appcrash in the background stating that WinSAT.exe had crashed.

    That's the first time that ever happened before but it's also the first time I tested to have the AERO theme on after an fresh install recently (I honestly don't know if themes have anything to do with WinSAT.exe crashing but I usually turn themes off completely after fresh installs and go with the Classic Windows theme which never caused any problems to me before)

    Anyway I searched for some information about WinSAT and found out an way to disable it from running through the task scheduler, neat but I also found some other tasks in the background I never thought of before which was scheduled.

    So for someone here who knows a lot about tasks, is it safe to delete them all completely because by the look of it they seem not to important at all.

    I honestly don't want unnecessary crap running in the background when I play and do certainly not want any stupid appcrashes.

    Thanks in advance!
     
  2. Yurbuh Tuggly

    Yurbuh Tuggly MDL Member

    Jul 26, 2009
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    Better (and less tedious) than deleting (or disabling) all the individual Tasks--there are quite a few in quite a few categories, just set the Task Scheduler Service to Disabled or Manual > then, after reboot no tasks can run anyway unless you choose to start the Service.
     
  3. JaguarXJ12

    JaguarXJ12 Guest

    Hi and thanks for your answer.

    I have checked that service now and all the options was greyed out, there was no way for me to either disable or stopping the service unfortunately.

    Well I'll guess I have to delete them manually then.
     
  4. Zombie

    Zombie MDL Novice

    Jun 10, 2010
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    There is actually some Windows component that depends on Task Scheduler, and there will be trouble if it's not running...unfortunately my flakey memory is out on what that actually was! But I had considerable trouble finding that out when i had problems on an earlier windows... better just disable the tasks, there are not that many really and there's a ready disable button in the Actions pane.

    Besides many of them are outright useful, like time synchronization, and gadget manager if you use any.
     
  5. Yurbuh Tuggly

    Yurbuh Tuggly MDL Member

    Jul 26, 2009
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    Actually DELETING the tasks will cause you much hassle if you ever, for whatever reason, want them back.
    You can go through and disable the individual tasks, or, if you really want to stop the entire Service (it cannot be done in the normal "Services" way due to security restrictions on any task that is actually already running) go to Regedit;
    HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\services\Schedule
    Right click in the right pane on Start>Modify, change the 2 to a 4, then reboot. To restore the Scheduled Task Service, change the 4 back to 2, then reboot.
     
  6. JaguarXJ12

    JaguarXJ12 Guest

    I thank you both for your answers.

    I have now deleted every task in the task scheduler since I posted here and haven't encountered any problems so far (the only thing I do is start the computer, play a game, quit the game, change game or turn the computer completely off again so I don't see any harm this can do.

    WinSAT should be out of the way now and so is everything else.

    Services is always kept to an minimum.

    I play games on it and nothing else, so I'm happy.

    And thanks for the tip with the registry key!
     
  7. Zaborgttm

    Zaborgttm MDL Novice

    May 24, 2010
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    Not sure if you've tried it but I use a program called Game Booster to shut down background processes to free up as much processing power as I can. If you haven't already, give it a shot. It's freeware, just google it.
     
  8. kubato

    kubato MDL Member

    Jul 29, 2009
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    Game Booster from IObit is Great, not only does it shutdown programs and services that are not needed but, it will allow you to shutdown normally unstoppable virus scanning software. I do not advise everyone to do this but, those of you who use keygens and other grey market software will find Game Booster a great tool. I give it a 10 out of 10 and have it on all my servers and workstations.