To schedule a task using the operating system (SyncToy Example)

1.      From the Start menu, select All Programs - Accessories - System Tools - Scheduled Tasks.

2.      Select Add scheduled task to start the Scheduled Task Wizard. You will see a list of possible programs to run.

3.      SyncToy may appear as an option in the list. If SyncToy does not appear in the list, click Browse and go find it.
(Note: Odds are, it’s in your c:\Program Files\Microsoft\SyncToy directory)

4.      The wizard will next prompt you to enter how often you want to run the scheduled SyncToy (for example, daily, weekly, et cetera). Select a frequency.
(Note: I’d suggest weekly unless you make lots of changes to your documents)

5.      The next page asks when to start the task. Select a start time.
(Note: I’d suggest middle of the night.)

6.      The next page asks for the user name and password to run the program under. Enter your user name and password.

7.      The final page contains an option to open the properties dialog when the wizard ends. Select this checkbox.

8.      Modify the Run textbox to include (append) the –R command line option. –R all by itself will run all folder pairs that are active for run all. (Note: Sufficient if you only have this one pair, or other similar pairs. In which case, you’re done with this step) If you want to run just a single folder pair, add –R“My Pair” to the end of the command line. Note: there is a space before the hyphen but not one after the R. If the folder pair name contains a space, surround it with quotation marks, as the example above shows. For another example, assume that SyncToy is in the folder named C:\My Folder and that you want to run a folder pair named “My folder pair.” Enter the command line as follows, including the quotation marks: “C:\My Folder\SyncToy.exe” -R”My folder pair.” Note that there are two sets of quotation marks in this case: one is around the path to the SyncToy program file and the other surrounds the folder pair name.