Creating and managing tasks
You create tasks by using the New Task Wizard. By default, this wizard starts
automatically when you finish creating a taskpad view. You can start
the wizard using the taskpad Properties dialog box as well. In the
Tasks tab, tap or click New. Alternatively, in your MMC, press and
hold or right-click the folder or console item where you defined the
taskpad, and then select Edit Taskpad View from the shortcut
menu.
After the New Task Wizard is started, tap or click Next, and
then select the command type as follows:
-
Choose Menu Command to run the standard menu options of
included snap-ins.
-
Choose Shell Command to run scripts or programs or to open
webpages.
-
Choose Navigation to navigate to a saved view on the
Favorites menu.
The subsequent screens you see depend on the type of task you
are creating.
Creating menu command tasks
After choosing to create a menu command, select a source for
the command, as shown in Figure 20. You specify
the source of the command as a node from the console tree or from
the list in the results pane for the item selected when you
started the wizard. If you choose Node In The Tree as the source,
select a snap-in in the console tree, and then choose one of the
available commands for that snap-in. The commands available change
based on the snap-in you’ve selected.
Next, you set the name and description for the task. The name is used as the shortcut link
designator for the task. The description is displayed as text
under the shortcut link or as an InfoTip, depending on the way you
configured the taskpad.
On the Task Icon page, you can choose an icon for the task.
Select Icons Provided By MMC to choose any of the icons
provided by the MMC. Tap or click an icon to select it and to
display what the icon symbolizes and its alternate meanings. If
you want to use a different set of icons, select Custom Icon and then tap or click Browse. This
displays the Change Icon dialog box. Tap or click Browse to
display the Open dialog box. By default, the Open dialog box
should open with the directory set to %SystemRoot%\System32. In
this case, type shell32.dll as the
File Name and tap or click Open. You should now see the Change
Icon dialog box with the Shell32.dll selected, which will allow
you to choose one of several hundred icons registered for use with
the operating system shell.
When you tap or click Next again, the wizard confirms the
task creation and shows a current list of tasks on the taskpad if you tap or click Finish to
finalize the creation of the current task. If you want to create
another task, select the When I Click Finish, Run This Wizard
Again check box and then repeat this process. Otherwise, just tap
or click Finish.
Creating shell command tasks
After choosing to create a shell command, specify the command line for the
task, as shown in Figure 21.
The options are as follows:
-
Command The full file or
Universal Naming Convention (UNC) path to the command you’ve
chosen to run, such as C:\Scripts\Checkpol.bat or
\\Corpserver01\Scripts\Checkpol.bat. The command can be a
shell or batch script or a program. If you don’t
know the path to use, tap or click Browse and then use the
Open dialog box to find the program you want to run.
-
Parameters The
command-line parameters you want to pass to the script or
program. Tap or click the right arrow beside the parameters
field to display variables you can use. (These are related to
the snap-in you selected originally when creating the taskpad.) Select a variable to add
it to the list of command-line parameters.
-
Start In The startup (or
base) directory for the script or program you’ve chosen, such
as C:\Temp.
-
Run The type of window
the script or program should run within, either a normal,
minimized, or maximized window.
Next, you set the name and description for the task. The name is used as the shortcut link
designator for the task. The description is displayed as text
under the shortcut link or as an InfoTip, depending on the way you
configured the taskpad.
Next, you can choose an icon for the task. As discussed
previously, you can select Icons Provided By MMC or Custom Icon. If you use custom icons, you probably want to use the
Shell32.dll in the %SystemRoot%\System32 directory to provide the
custom icon.
When you tap or click Next again, the wizard confirms the
task creation and shows a current list of tasks on the taskpad if you tap or click Finish to
finalize the creation of the current task. If you want to create
another task, select the When I Click Finish, Run This Wizard
Again check box and then repeat this process. Otherwise, just tap
or click Finish.
