Scheduled Task Powershell Script – Runs OK as user account, but not as SYSTEM

by

This isn’t the answer why your specific script doesn’t work under the SYSTEM account but explains how you might troubleshoot your (or any other) PowerShell Script under the SYSTEM account.

Give a man a fish, and you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish,
and you feed him for a lifetime.

The whole thing around this, is that you can actually open a interactive PowerShell command prompt under the SYSTEM account were you probably not aware of.

Run PowerShell as SYSTEM

There are a few ways to start a interactive PowerShell command prompt but probably the easiest one is using PsExec.

Using PsExec

  • Download
    PsTools
  • Extract PSTools.zip and just copy PsExec into your executable path
  • Run PowerShell as Administrator (accept the User AccountControl prompt)
  • In the PowerShell administrator window, give the command: .\PsExec -i -s -d PowerShell
  • A new PowerShell command window will open:
    PowerShell as SYSTEM
    (Type WhoAmI to confirm the current account)

From here you can troubleshoot the specific script:

  • Are there any errors when running the specific script?
  • Does it hang or crash at a specific command?
  • Are there any differences with running it under a user account?

If it appears that the script runs actually fine in the SYSTEM window, then I would check for any errors in the Task Scheduler:

  • Select Task Scheduler Local – Task Scheduler Library in the left pane
  • Select your task in the middle top pane
  • (Make sure you have Display All Task History in the right pane Enabled)
  • In the middle bottom pane check the events in the history tab

More Related Contents:

  1. Get-Aduser -Filter will not accept a variable
  2. In what scenario was Invoke-Expression designed to be used?
  3. Powershell executable isn’t outputting to STDOUT
  4. How can I write/create a powershell script verbatim, from another powershell script?
  5. How to escape special characters in PowerShell?
  6. Read file line by line in PowerShell
  7. Access PSObject property indirectly with variable
  8. How to remove all quotations mark in the csv file using powershell script?
  9. Is there a way to set a variable up to place output to stdout or null?
  10. Export-CSV exports length but not name
  11. Timing a command’s execution in PowerShell
  12. Write-Host vs Write-Information in PowerShell 5
  13. Why does “Get-ChildItem -File | Get-FileHash” work?
  14. Get the drive letter of USB drive in PowerShell
  15. Powershell Using Start-Process in PSSession to Open Notepad
  16. CMD or Powershell command to combine (merge) corresponding lines from two files [duplicate]
  17. Powershell Get-ChildItem most recent file in directory
  18. Powershell – Reboot and Continue Script
  19. Hashtables and key order
  20. Executing powershell command directly in jenkins pipeline
  21. Should $null be on the left side of the equality comparison? (-eq with arrays)
  22. How can I redirect stdout and stderr without polluting PowerShell error output
  23. Check if a file exists or not in Windows PowerShell?
  24. Create Outlook email draft using PowerShell
  25. Read a Csv file with powershell and capture corresponding data
  26. Using –% in PowerShell
  27. List hidden sub-directories and sizes
  28. Are the cmdlets in a pipeline executing in parallel?
  29. PS Script is exporting an empty CSVs
  30. Drag and Drop to a Powershell script

Leave a Comment