The Windows Vista comes with a new & enhanced Task Scheduler service which offers much more control & flexibility when compared to the ones provided in the previous versions of Windows. The Vista Task Scheduler service provides controlled & unattended management of task execution, launched either on schedule or asynchronously in response to events arising out of system state changes. One of the best features provided by the new task scheduler is the ability to schedule tasks even when the system is in Sleep or Hibernate mode. When activated, the system automatically wakes up & performs the scheduled task.
Here, I will show you how you can wake up your system to run a bunch of songs in Windows Media Player at a predefined time on a frequent basis. If you need a musical boost to wake up early in the morning this may serve you best by acting as an alarm.
- From your start menu, go to ‘All Programs -> Accessories -> System Tools’ & select the ‘Task Scheduler’ program.
- Select the Create Task option from the Right Side bar of the Task scheduler panel.
- Enter the name & the optional description of the task in the General tab of the Create Task dialog box.
- Select the Triggers tab & create a new trigger. Here, you can set the trigger points & frequency for the task. Select the Daily radio button and schedule date & time for the task to run. Click on Ok.
- Select the Actions Tab & create a new Action. Select the Program to run (Windows Media Player) by clicking on the Browse button. Give all the additional arguments to the command in the ‘Add arguments’ section. For example, the following arguments needs to be given along with the wmplayer for playing the Windows Media Player play list. “/play /close Fully_Qualified_Name_Of_The_Playlist_File”
- Select the Conditions tab & select the Wake the computer to run this task check box.
- Now, Click on Ok to save your Task.
Once you are done with these 7 steps, your system will automatically start the task at the scheduled time even if it is in sleep or hibernate mode.
