Comments on: How to schedule tasks in Windows using Z-Cron

By: Tom

Tom — Thu, 03 Jun 2010 03:38:52 +0000

Is there a way to close a program using Z-Cron? I have a task that opens Firefox and loads a webpage every hour. It works like a charm, but if I leave it run unattended for 2 days, when I come back there are 48 open tabs because it opens a new tab every time the task is run.

If I can figure out a way to use Z-Cron to close Firefox 10 minutes after the first task runs (which I can set using the scheduler), then that would solve this problem.

Does anybody know of any way to program a task to close Firefox at a specified time?

Thank you.

By: Zack

Zack — Tue, 16 Mar 2010 17:21:51 +0000

That is really neat! And I like how everyone has been using this: playing music automatically, opening an Excel file! I use it to create a new email for me in the morning so I don’t forget.

By: Murtaza

Murtaza — Wed, 20 May 2009 10:34:39 +0000

Windows built-in Task Scheduler is handy for playing both programs & associated files.

I have been using it to record my Extra Hours if i m working in office till 7pm.

I have scheduled the file Overtime.xls as task to run at 7pm if my computer is open….it automatically open Excel with Overtime.xls so i just need to enter the date & amount. Extra Earnings!!!

Built-in tools are always safe to use instead of installing other softwares.

Hope this helps

By: akishore

akishore — Fri, 12 Dec 2008 20:29:01 +0000

I’m still confused though because when I go to Scheduled Tasks in Windows, I can only choose programs to schedule, it won’t let me choose files. How did you choose a file? Thanks

By: Michael The Dumb Tech Geek

Michael The Dumb Tech Geek — Fri, 12 Dec 2008 20:02:50 +0000

I selected the playlist file to run on schedule. When the time came, WMP the program opened and the playlist was loaded to Now Playing. I left WMP on Shuffle with the volume pretty high, so it was the perfect alarm.

By: akishore

akishore — Fri, 12 Dec 2008 16:40:38 +0000

Michael, you were able to schedule the Windows Media Player file using Scheduled Tasks in Windows? Or did you schedule Windows Media Player the program to start up and then WMP would automatically open your playlist when started?

By: Phao Loo

Phao Loo — Wed, 10 Dec 2008 16:34:25 +0000

That’s cute to set an mp3 to wake me up in the morning this way.

By: Michael The Dumb Tech Geek

Michael The Dumb Tech Geek — Wed, 10 Dec 2008 13:27:57 +0000

“The Windows Control Panel has Windows Scheduled Task Wizard (shown below) will let you schedule program execution but you will not be able to automatically open a file related to that program.”

I played with this awhile back and may be mistaken, but Windows Media Player saves its playlists as a file. I set up morning wake-up calls by setting that file to run when I wanted to wake up, and it opened WMP and started immediately.

Assuming I’d left the volume at a ‘wakeup’ level, it worked like a charm.