---
name: feedback_scheduled_task_no_console_flash
description: Windows scheduled tasks must launch console apps windowless (wscript VBS for bash, pythonw + -Hidden for python) or they flash a console window on the desktop every run
metadata:
  type: feedback
---

A Windows scheduled task whose action runs a **console-subsystem** program — `bash.exe`,
`py.exe`, `python.exe`, `cmd.exe` — with `LogonType=Interactive` and `Settings.Hidden=False`
draws a visible console window on the desktop **every time it fires**. On short repetition
intervals (the EDR watcher fires every 10 min) this reads to the user as a command prompt
"opening and closing" constantly. It is the single most reported harness annoyance and it
keeps recurring because the *installer scripts* recreate the flashing task.

**Why:** wscript.exe is a GUI-subsystem host and pythonw.exe is the windowless Python host;
neither allocates a console. bash.exe / py.exe / python.exe do.

**How to apply:** whenever you register (or find) a ClaudeTools scheduled task:
- **bash target** -> point the action at `C:\Windows\System32\wscript.exe` with a one-line VBS
  wrapper that does `CreateObject("WScript.Shell").Run "...bash.exe -lc ...", 0, False`
  (window style `0` = hidden). Pattern files: `gps-rmm-progress-hidden.vbs`,
  `edr-isolation-watch-hidden.vbs`.
- **python target** -> use `pythonw.exe` (next to the active interpreter), never `py.exe`/`python.exe`.
- **Always** add `-Hidden` to `New-ScheduledTaskSettingsSet` as belt-and-suspenders.
- Verify: `Start-ScheduledTask`, then confirm no visible bash/wscript/conhost MainWindow.

Fixed installers: `register-edr-watcher.ps1`, `register-orphan-detector.ps1`. The scheduled
tasks themselves are per-machine (not in the repo) — re-run the fixed installer, or repoint
the existing task's action, on every box that runs it. Related: [[feedback_session_recovery]].