Windows® 95 and Windows NT®
Operating Systems
White Paper
This paper is intended for software developers and system integrators. It describes the Task Scheduler, a new service and user interface that runs on both the Microsoft® Windows® 95 and Windows NT® operating systems. Task Scheduler is accessible from the same programming interfaces whether you are adding scheduling services to a program running under Windows NT or Windows 95.
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Task Scheduler provides a friendly user interface that is the same one on both Windows 95 and Windows NT, with the exception of added security features in Windows NT. The interface is fully integrated into the operating system, and is accessible from the My Computer icon on your desktop. Users can drag-and-drop programs right into Task Scheduler to quickly add a new task or use the provided “Create Scheduled Task” wizard.
Figure 1. Task Scheduler Main Window
Note: When you move a .job file on a Windows NT system, a user’s credentials will not transfer with the file. They must be reentered after moving the file. This is because the credentials are not stored with the task, but by the security system of Windows NT.
Task Scheduler provides a common and fully programmable set of interfaces. Task Scheduler is a COM-based object, which adds all the advantages of COM, including language and platform independence (as well as remote capabilities provided by DCOM). If you are developing an application to run under both Windows 95 and Windows NT, you can write to the same interfaces regardless of the platform.
Figure 2. One of Task Scheduler’s Property Pages
Task Scheduler will be shipped along with the next major releases of Windows (code-named “Memphis”), Windows NT, and Microsoft Internet Explorer. The Task Scheduler user interface is currently available in Internet Explorer 4.0 beta 1 and the APIs are documented in the Internet SDK client at http://www.microsoft.com/workshop/prog/inetsdk/ and the Platform SDK at http://www.microsoft.com/msdn/sdk.
The goal of the Task Scheduler team is to unify a set of disparate tools to make a user’s experience more consistent and satisfying. By providing common APIs across platforms, Microsoft hopes to help developers in building their applications and adding scheduling services—virtually for free. Robust, cross-platform, flexible scheduling is one less thing you have to create from scratch.
For the latest information on Windows 95 check out our World Wide Web site at www.microsoft.com/windows.