Disabling specific Windows scheduled tasks to prevent software issues

Several Windows scheduled tasks can cause issues with live data ingest and interfere with the normal working of Dartcom software. We therefore recommend those tasks are disabled manually.

To disable the problematic scheduled tasks:

1. Click the Start icon (Windows logo) and type schedule.
2. Click the Task Scheduler icon.
3. Expand the tree and for each of the tasks in the list below, right-click it and select Disable.

Task Scheduler (Local)

Task Scheduler Library

Microsoft

Windows

Application Experience

Microsoft Compatibility Appraiser

Chkdsk

ProactiveScan

Customer Experience Improvement Program

Consolidator

UsbCeip

Defrag

ScheduledDefrag (except for PCs with SSDs - see below)

DiskCleanup

SilentCleanup (this absolutely must be disabled)

DiskDiagnostic

Microsoft-Windows-DiskDiagnosticDataCollector

InstallService

ScanForUpdates

ScanForUpdatesAsUser

SmartRetry

It's vital that the SilentCleanup task is disabled, as this removes any temporary files that aren't open, including files and folders that Dartcom software may be using.

For systems equipped with SSDs, the ScheduledDefrag task should be left enabled. Instead, do the following:

1. Click the Start icon and type defrag.
2. Click the Defragment and Optimize Drives icon.
3. Click Change settings.
4. Switch on Run on a schedule.
5. Switch off Increase task priority.
6. Click Choose and ensure that only SSD drives are switched on, and hard drives are switched off. Refer to the list of drives in the main window which shows the drive types.

Lastly, to ensure temporary files aren't deleted if the SilentCleanup task is re-enabled, do the following:

1. Click the Start icon and type reg.
2. Click the Registry Editor icon.
3. When asked to allow changes, click Yes.
4. Navigate to the Autorun value in the path below, then right-click it and select Modify and change the value from 1 to 0.

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\VolumeCaches\Temporary Files

Occasionally a Windows update will re-enable scheduled tasks that have been disabled, or change the Registry value above back to 1. We therefore recommend they're checked each time Windows updates are installed.