How to run a program at a specific time on Windows

The short answer

• • Built in and free: Task Scheduler starts a program once, or on a daily, weekly or monthly schedule, at the time you choose. Its Create Basic Task wizard is the short way in, and schtasks does the same from Command Prompt.
• • The three catches: by default a task does not start while a laptop runs on battery, a task set to run whether you are logged on or not runs where you cannot see its window, and a task does not wake a sleeping PC unless you tell it to.
• • With Seqtrix: one Open Application step on a Time schedule, which opens the program in your own session and can then wait, type and open more for you.

The Windows facts here are from Microsoft's Task Scheduler, schtasks and task settings pages. Checked on 26 October 2026.

The free way first: Task Scheduler and schtasks

Start with what you already have. Each fact below is from Microsoft's own pages, linked under each card. The pages that walk through the Task Scheduler window are archived ones written for Windows Vista, Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008, with a 2015 post from Microsoft's support team; the pages on triggers, actions, task settings and schtasks are current. Checked on 26 October 2026.

schtasks /create /tn MyApp /tr c:\apps\myapp.exe /sc daily /st 08:00

Three catches that make a task seem to do nothing

The task is there and its time came, but nothing opened. These three settings are the usual reasons, and each one is a default or a choice in the dialog.

When the free tools are enough

If you want one program at one time and you are at home in Task Scheduler, use it. It is free, it is already on your PC, and it does two things Seqtrix cannot: it runs a task when nobody is signed in, and it can wake a sleeping PC to run one.

What it leaves to you is everything after the program opens: waiting for it to load, typing into it, pressing its shortcuts, opening the file or page you need next. And the three catches above, for every task you make. That is the part Seqtrix does.

The Seqtrix way: one step and a Time schedule

Seqtrix is a Windows app where you put steps in a sequence and fire it from a hotkey, a schedule or a click. To run a program at a specific time you need one step, Open Application, and one schedule on the Time trigger. Both are on every plan, the free Starter plan included.

1. 1
   Make a sequence that opens the program

   On the home page, click Create Sequence and type a name in Sequence Name, such as Mail at 9. From the Workflow tab on the left, drag Open Application onto the canvas.

2. 2
   Point it at the program

   Choose Installed App and pick the program from Apps on this PC. Or keep Manual Path and type or Browse to its .exe, or to a file, which opens in its usual program. The editor checks a typed path as you go: Path is valid, or File not found at this path.

3. 3
   Test it, then save

   Click Test run and check that the program opens. Then click Save Sequence.

4. 4
   Give it a time

   Open Schedules from the side rail and choose + New Schedule. Type a Name, choose your sequence under Sequence and keep Trigger on Time. Recurrence starts on Once: pick the date and time under When for a single run. Or choose Daily, Weekly or Monthly and set the Hour, from 0 to 23, and the Minute. Weekly asks for days under On weekdays and Monthly for a Day of month.

5. 5
   Choose what a missed run does, then create it

   Under If missed while app was offline, choose Skip, Run once, which is the default, or Run all. Leave Desktop notification on to see a Windows notification each time it fires, and click Create Schedule.

Other times you can set

• • Every hour: Hourly runs it at the Minute of each hour you choose.
• • Anything else: Custom takes a cron expression with six fields, seconds first, such as 0 0 9 * * * for 9 AM every day or 0 */15 * * * * for every 15 minutes, the two examples the form gives.
• • Twice a day: give the same sequence a second schedule. On Starter, each schedule counts toward its 3.
• • From a ready-made one: on the Schedules page, Browse schedule templates adds a sequence and its schedule in one go. Friday end-of-week report (5 PM), for example, opens Notepad at 5 PM on Fridays and types an outline for your weekly report.

Do more once the program is open

After Open Application, Seqtrix waits half a second, then brings the program's window to the front, trying for up to 3 seconds, so the steps after it reach that program. Add a Wait while it loads, Press Key for its shortcuts, Type Text for words (Seqtrix pastes them through the clipboard, so they replace what you had copied), or another Open Application for the file or program you need next. A ready-made example of a timed routine is the "Stand-up prep, five minutes before" template.

From template: Stand-up prep, five minutes before

Template

Stand-up prep, five minutes before

Plan

Advanced

Steps

8

Trigger

None built in. Its own note says: "Schedule it five minutes before the meeting."

These are its steps, as they ship:

1. 1
   Create the stand-up folder

   Run Command

   Makes a Standup folder in your Documents folder, if there is not one already.

2. 2
   Start today's note

   Run Command

   Writes a note named after today's date in that folder, with a Stand-up heading. If today's note already exists, this replaces what is in it, so a second run on the same day starts the note again.

3. 3
   Pull yesterday out of the worklog

   Run Command

   If there is a worklog.txt in your Documents folder, copies yesterday's lines from it into the note, such as the line the free Clock out template adds when you finish. With no worklog, it adds nothing.

4. 4
   Open the note

   Run Command

   Opens the note in Notepad.

5. 5
   Let Notepad take focus

   Wait

   Waits 1.5 seconds so Notepad is in front before anything is typed.

6. 6
   Jump to the end

   Press Key

   Presses Ctrl+End, which moves to the end of the note.

7. 7
   Add today and blockers

   Type Text

   Adds a Today heading and a Blocked on heading, each with an empty bullet. Type Text pastes through the clipboard, so whatever you had copied is replaced.

8. 8
   Open the stand-up call

   Run Command

   Opens meet.google.com in your default browser. Edit the command to put your own meeting link in its place.

To use it, open Templates in Seqtrix, search for "Stand-up prep, five minutes before" and click its card. On Advanced or Pro, or during the trial, Seqtrix saves it as one of your sequences and opens it in the editor. On Starter the card opens a read-only preview, and its Add button offers the 15-day Advanced trial, if you have not used it, or Advanced. Then give it a Time schedule: Weekly, Mon to Fri under On weekdays, five minutes before your stand-up.

Before you rely on it

• • Seqtrix has to be running. Closing its window leaves it in the system tray (Minimize to system tray on close is on by default), and schedules keep running there; Quit from the tray icon stops them. To have it start with Windows, turn on Launch on startup in Settings, which stays off until you do, then check after your next restart that the Seqtrix icon is in the tray.
• • Sleep and shutdown. If the PC was asleep with Seqtrix running, the run fires as soon as the PC wakes. If Seqtrix was closed, the missed-run setting decides what happens when it next starts. Seqtrix cannot wake the PC.
• • Your own clock. Times follow the time zone set on your PC, and two runs due together wait for each other instead of overlapping.

What Seqtrix cannot do

Common questions

Keep going

• Template: Stand-up prep, five minutes before, and the rest of the template library
• Open multiple apps at once on Windows: several programs in order, from one sequence
• Open your whole work setup with one hotkey: the start of the day on one key
• Close all apps at once on Windows 11: the end of the day, on a key or a schedule
• Run a script when a file is added to a folder: when a file lands rather than at a time
• Schedules and triggers: every way to fire a sequence
• Seqtrix vs Windows Task Scheduler