Windows 8 waking issues - "Maintenance Configurator" task cannot be changed or disabled

Question

I recently upgraded to Windows 8 x64 (from Windows 7 x64). I had all the wake from sleep tasks disabled in Windows 7.

In the Windows 8 Task Scheduler, Task Scheduler Library>>Microsoft>>Windows>>Maintenance Configurator is a Microsoft scheduled task that by default runs at 1 AM every day.

I don't want the task disabled but I do want to changed it so my computer doesn't wake me up at 1 AM every night. I've tried running as admin and Task Scheduler still says I cannot change it. Suggestions?

Answer 1

The Maintenance Configurator task can only be disabled by the SYSTEM account; a local admin cannot disable it. Therefore, you must start up the Computer Management console as the local system account.

There are many ways to go about this, and my preferred method is to use PsExec (http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/bb897553.aspx).

Open Notepad, save the following text as a batch file, and then right-click on the batch file and select "Run as administrator". (Alternatively, you could just open an elevated command prompt and type the command.)

psexec -i -s mmc.exe compmgmt.msc

Now you can disable the Maintenance Configurator task.

Answer 2

It must be a critical task, you might find it in the registry, but there are sure to be ugly side effects to disabling it completely or tinkering with the settings.

Can you change the time of the task?

The MantenanceConfigurator task is located at the location below in the windows registry

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Schedule\TaskCache\Tasks\{378401BA-A703-444A-A79C-3C47AD2DC5B6}

I would not edit anything in this registry key unless you know exactly what your doing.

EDIT:

I may have found it Power Options > Advanced Settings > Sleep > Wake Timers

Set it to disabled.

.

Answer 3

If you don't want Windows to wake up your computer at all you should read this post.