PRACTICE: OPERATING SYSTEMS CONFIGURATION

(TASK SCHEDULER & SCRIPTS)

P Practice 7.
E
E Date: Group: Mark:

A Student.

D. Name: Surname:

1.1. Introduction.___________________________________________
Task Scheduler is a component of Microsoft Windows that provides the ability to schedule the
launch of programmes or scripts at pre-defined times or after specified time intervals. It was first
introduced in the Microsoft Plus! for Windows 95 as System Agent but was renamed to Task
Scheduler in Windows 98.

The Task Scheduler service works by managing Tasks; Task refers to the action (or actions)
taken in response to trigger(s). A task is defined by associating a set of actions, which can
include launching an application or taking some custom-defined action, to a set of triggers,
which can either be time-based or event-based. In addition, a task also can contain metadata
that defines how the actions will be executed, such as the security context the task will run in.

We will learn also basic commands to manage MS-DOS, which is the predecessor of Windows
and that even today is often useful in the Networks field. Thanks to MS-DOS commands, we
can know if there is network connectivity or certain aspects of the network quality.

A batch file is a kind of script file in DOS, OS/2 and Windows. It consists of a series
of commands to be executed by the command line interpreter, stored in a plain text file. A batch
file may contain any command the interpreter accepts interactively and use constructs that
enable conditional branching and looping within the batch file, such as "if", "for", "goto"
and labels.

The filename extension .bat is used in DOS and Windows

1.2. Objective.______________________________________________
 Learning how to use the Windows Task Scheduler.
 Knowing the most common DOS commands.
 Knowing the main syntax of programming Shell scripts.
 Learning to make a DOS Shell script.

1.3 .Material._______________________________________________
 PC classroom.
 Websites:
o http://www.nextofwindows.com/how-to-schedule-windows-automatically-power-
on-and-power-off
o https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc721931.aspx

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1.4. Development.__________________________________________
Task Scheduler

Use the Windows Task Scheduler to create 3 scheduled tasks (with maximum utility). Define the
parameters set in each of them (trigger, action and condition).

Scheduled Task #1

Scheduled Task #2

Scheduled Task #3

MS-DOS Commands (file management, disk partition, networks)

Since version MS-DOS 5.0, help is provided onscreen where we can solve most of the
questions.

To run the aid, you must type help and press Enter.

There is also a quick way to find help on a specific DOS command. For example, if we want to
get help on the dir command we have to write dir /? or help dir and then press enter.

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What does the command dir do? What are its options?

What does the command chkdsk do? What are its options?

What does the command tree do? What are its options?

What does the command attrib do? What are its options?

What does the command format do? What are its options?

What does the command type do? What are its options?

What does the command label do? What are its options?

Do the following exercise and writing the used commands and the found difficulties.

1. Making the following directory structure (Hint: Use the commands md, cd and dir).
Nota Bene (N.B.): Replace the letter A: by your name.

2. Using the text editor MS-DOS (command: edit), create a text file with any content
named computer.txt within the TurboC directory.
3. Set the file computer.txt as "read only" so that it can’t be changed by anyone.

Write down the difficulties you had during the exercise and the steps you followed to create the
above directory structure.

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Run the following network commands. What are their functions?

ipconfig /all

ping www.google.es

tracert www.salesianos.edu

netstat

hostname

Programme a DOS Shell Script

Write a script that runs a DOS menu and perform (at least) the following functions:

Personal interview about the practice performed:

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1.4. Optional Task.__________________________________________
In this section, you can do anything that can improve the practice. It will be assessed with an
extra point in the practice assessment.

Explain below what you have done.

Several proposals can be the following:

 Show the exercise about the directory structure as an option in the menu.
 Program new options in the menu.
 Use the Windows PowerShell

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