Scheduled Tasks in Windows is an easy to use and convenient feature.  You can schedule documents or programs to run at a certain time that you select.  This feature is particularly useful to perform routine maintenance by scheduling when to run defrag, disk cleanup, anti-virus scan, firewall scan, or registry cleaners. You can also schedule when to open various types of software you use all the time.  For example, when to run a messenger program or when to open email.

To access Scheduled Tasks click Start, All Programs, Accessories, System Tools then Scheduled Tasks. The task setup wizard will pop up, click Next.  On the next screen select what task you want to schedule.  For example, say you want to schedule Disk Cleanup, you would check the box next to Disk Cleanup and click Next.  On the next screen select when you want the task to be done.

Check either daily, weekly, monthly, when my computer starts or when I log on.  The following screen allows you to select what day of the week.  This applies if you selected weekly or monthly.  If you choose weekly the next screens asks how often whether every week, every two weeks, every three weeks, etc, click Next.  The next screen asks you what time you want the task to start and what time you want it to end, click Next.

Next is the confirmation screen that you scheduled a task, what the task is and the starting and ending times, click Finish.  A window will pop up saying a task has been scheduled.