How to List Scheduled Tasks with PowerShell

To list scheduled tasks with PowerShell, run Get-ScheduledTask. It returns every task you have permission to see, with its folder, name and state:

Get-ScheduledTask

On a typical PC that’s a couple of hundred tasks. Below I narrow the list by folder, name and state, read run results, see what each task runs, query remote PCs and export a report.

To keep my outputs short, and my own apps private, I ran the examples against Windows’ built-in tasks only. The commands work the same on any task.

List tasks in one folder

Tasks live in folders, just like in Task Scheduler. -TaskPath limits the list to one folder. The path must start and end with a backslash. I selected two columns so the long names fit:

Get-ScheduledTask -TaskPath '\Microsoft\Windows\Windows Defender\' |
    Select-Object -Property TaskName, State

Output:

TaskName                           State
--------                           -----
Windows Defender Cache Maintenance Ready
Windows Defender Cleanup           Ready
Windows Defender Scheduled Scan    Ready
Windows Defender Verification      Ready

Most third-party apps put their tasks in the root folder, \. To list only those, run Get-ScheduledTask -TaskPath '\'.

Scheduled tasks are also a common reason for PowerShell popping up randomly.

Find a task by name

-TaskName takes one or more names, and wildcards such as '*Defrag*' work too:

Get-ScheduledTask -TaskName 'ScheduledDefrag', 'SynchronizeTime'

Output:

TaskPath                                       TaskName                          State
--------                                       --------                          -----
\Microsoft\Windows\Defrag\                     ScheduledDefrag                   Ready
\Microsoft\Windows\Time Synchronization\       SynchronizeTime                   Ready

If a name doesn’t exist, you get the error No MSFT_ScheduledTask objects found. Add -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue when you only want to test whether a task exists.

Filter tasks by state

State is Ready, Running, Disabled or Queued. Group-Object gives you a quick count of the built-in tasks:

Get-ScheduledTask |
    Where-Object { $_.TaskPath -like '\Microsoft\Windows\*' } |
    Group-Object -Property State -NoElement |
    Sort-Object -Property Name

Output:

Count Name
----- ----
   34 Disabled
  143 Ready
    3 Running

The Running count changes from moment to moment. To list the disabled tasks instead of counting them, use Get-ScheduledTask | Where-Object State -EQ 'Disabled'.

Get last run results with Get-ScheduledTaskInfo

Run history isn’t part of Get-ScheduledTask. Pipe the task to Get-ScheduledTaskInfo, which adds LastRunTime, NextRunTime, LastTaskResult and NumberOfMissedRuns:

Get-ScheduledTask -TaskName 'SynchronizeTime' |
    Get-ScheduledTaskInfo |
    Select-Object -Property TaskName, LastTaskResult, NumberOfMissedRuns

Output:

TaskName        LastTaskResult NumberOfMissedRuns
--------        -------------- ------------------
SynchronizeTime              0                  0

A LastTaskResult of 0 means success. Anything else is an error or status code, such as 267011, which means the task has never run.

See what a task runs

The Actions property holds the program and its arguments. Triggers holds the schedule:

$task = Get-ScheduledTask -TaskName 'SynchronizeTime'
$task.Actions | Format-List -Property Execute, Arguments

Output:

Execute   : %windir%\system32\sc.exe
Arguments : start w32time task_started

This is how I check an unknown task before I disable it. If Execute points to a script, checking who modified that file last can help too.

Export all tasks with run times to CSV

For an audit, combine both cmdlets in one loop and export the result:

Get-ScheduledTask | ForEach-Object {
    $info = $_ | Get-ScheduledTaskInfo
    [pscustomobject]@{
        TaskPath       = $_.TaskPath
        TaskName       = $_.TaskName
        State          = $_.State
        LastRunTime    = $info.LastRunTime
        NextRunTime    = $info.NextRunTime
        LastTaskResult = $info.LastTaskResult
    }
} | Export-Csv -Path C:\Reports\scheduled-tasks-2026-10.csv -NoTypeInformation

Piping the task object passes both its name and path, so tasks with the same name in different folders don’t get mixed up. More in PowerShell Export-Csv.

List scheduled tasks on a remote computer

Get-ScheduledTask has no -ComputerName parameter. Open a CIM session to the remote PC and pass it with -CimSession:

$session = New-CimSession -ComputerName 'NYC-SRV01', 'DAL-SRV02'
Get-ScheduledTask -CimSession $session -TaskPath '\' |
    Select-Object -Property PSComputerName, TaskName, State
Remove-CimSession -CimSession $session

You need admin rights on the remote PCs, and WinRM must be enabled. PSComputerName shows which server each task came from. The Get-ScheduledTask reference lists every parameter.

Use schtasks.exe instead

schtasks.exe works on every Windows version and doesn’t need the ScheduledTasks module. Convert its CSV output to objects:

schtasks.exe /Query /FO CSV /V | ConvertFrom-Csv |
    Select-Object -Property TaskName, Status, 'Next Run Time' -First 5

The column names come from your Windows display language, so scripts that run worldwide are safer with Get-ScheduledTask.

Frequently Asked Questions