Mstask Stops Working After a Random Period of Time

The Task Scheduler tool (Mstask.exe) may stop performing scheduled tasks after random intervals that vary from a few days to a few months. The Task Scheduler log shows that a job started, but is not finished. From that point on, Mstask does not start other jobs.

This issue can also occur after you install the hotfix that is described in the following Microsoft Knowledge Base article: This problem is more likely to occur if you schedule many tasks to run each hour.

This issue is resolved in Internet Explorer 5.5 SP2. For information about obtaining the latest version of Internet Explorer, visit the following Microsoft Web site:

To work around this issue in Microsoft Windows NT 4.0, you can also use the original Windows NT 4.0 task scheduler instead of Mstask. For additional information, click the article number below to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

Microsoft has confirmed that this is a problem in the Microsoft products that are listed at the beginning of this article.