Task Scheduler "A task or folder with this name already exists"

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Hello AskPerf! Blake here with a quick blog to discuss an issue I’ve seen more frequently over the past few months. Here is the Scenario:

When you try and create a new Scheduled Task via the command line (schtasks.exe), the following error appears:

"WARNING: The task name "PERFTEST" already exists. Do you want to replace it (Y/N>?"

If you hit Y, then this message will appear:

"ERROR: Cannot create a file when that file already exists."

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When you try and create the same task via the taskschd.msc snap-in, this message is displayed:

"An error has occurred for task test. Error message: A task or folder with this name already exists."

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When you click OK, the following error appears:

"Transaction support within the specified resource manager is not started or was shut down due to an error"

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After you click OK, the task is not created.

Research internally as well as out on the Internet suggest that the Transaction Log is corrupted. To fix this you need to do the following:

 

  1. Open up an elevated CMD prompt
  2. Type in the following and hit enter: "fsutil resource setautoreset true c:\ "
  3. Reboot
  4. After your machine reboots, you should be able to create new Scheduled Tasks now

NOTE I’ve only seen this on Windows 2008 R2 SP1 thus far, and will update this blog post if seen on other Operating Systems down the line.

Additional Resources

-Blake