If you use your computer often and if you’re reading this book you probably do you probably find yourself repeatedly performing the same steps to accomplish a number of ordinary tasks. The task might be a routine maintenance activity, such as backing up your data or cleaning detritus from your hard disk, or it might be a job that requires many steps. Computers excel at repetitive actions, and Microsoft Windows XP provides several ways to automate such tasks
Step2
Task Scheduler.
This service launches programs on a regular schedule or upon certain events, such as logging on to your computer.
Batch programs.
These programs, a throwback to the earliest days of MS-DOS, still provide an easy, reliable way to run a sequence of programs and commands. Most programs can be started from a command prompt, which means they can be started from a batch program.
Windows Script Host.
This feature allows you to run scripts written in VBScript, JScript, and other languages. cool huh! Although learning how to use Windows Script Host is more difficult than learning how to create batch programs, scripts can interact with the operating system and with other programs in much more powerful ways.
Step3
In most cases, you’ll find it useful to combine these techniques. For instance, suppose your computer has two hard disks and you want to defragment them weekly. You can set up a scheduled task to run the Defrag command, but it can defragment only a single drive. Rather than setting up a separate task for each hard drive and having to manage multiple schedules create a batch program that includes a command to defragment each hard disk, and then create a scheduled task to run the batch program once a week.