From: "Rich Gauszka" 

Vista scheduler appears to be a different beast than the one we have been
accustomed to. The addition of the triggers that can launch tasks at
startup, logon, idle makes me think that you really can't disable it and
really bad things may happen if you do - I'd have a backup ready

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/windowsvista/aa906020.aspx
Prior to Windows Vista, Task Scheduler could be configured to launch only a
single action in a scheduled task. IT professionals were unable to define
sequences of actions, but instead had to determine how long each process in
a sequence of operations would take, and "estimate" the right
window of time between tasks to ensure completion of the previous one
before starting the next. This lack of flexibility could cause a task to
run incorrectly or not at all, as in the case of a reporting application
failing to execute due to a reporting data collection task not being
completed on time.

Finally, prior to Windows Vista, Task Scheduler could be used only to
launch tasks at a certain time or in response to a limited set of system
conditions (Figure 1). Tasks could not be triggered based on events,
therefore the Task Scheduler was limited to periodic execution of scheduled
tasks.

Scheduler was limited to periodic execution of scheduled tasks.

 New Triggers. The ability to trigger a task based on any event captured in
the event log is one of the most powerful new features of the Windows Vista
Task Scheduler. This new capability allows administrators to send an e-mail
or launch a program automatically when a given event occurs. And it can be
used to automatically notify a support professional when a critical
event-for example, a potential hard drive failure-occurs on a client
machine. It also enables more complex scenarios, such as chasing down an
intermittent problem that tends to manifest overnight. Task Scheduler can
be configured to notify an administrator by e-mail that a problem has
occurred. An administrator can also use Task Scheduler to automatically
launch a program to collect more data when the error occurs.

In addition to events, the Task Scheduler in Windows Vista supports a
number of other new types of triggers, including triggers that launch tasks
at machine idle, startup, or logon. A number of additional triggers allow
administrators to set up tasks to launch when the session state changes,
including on Terminal Server connect and disconnect and workstation lock
and unlock. Task Scheduler still allows tasks to be triggered based on time
and date, and provides easy management of regularly scheduled tasks.

"Geo."  wrote in message news:45fa6eae{at}w3.nls.net...
> "John Beckett"  wrote in message
> news:esjkv2t8a6lnvt9bjh7ddrktm8h05nv3vc{at}4ax.com...
>
>> I think that Rich's generic advice is very sound: Messing about with all
>> this stuff is bound to lead to trouble.
>
> Ok so? I mean I learn to fix computers by doing. A service that even the
> administrator can't stop or disable, talk about a handy feature for a
> virus writer so now I want to know how it's done.
>
>> The correct procedure would be to set the Startup type to Disabled, then
>> restart.
>
> No you don't understand, ALL of the service properties are greyed out.
>
>> On XP I would use services.msc or set registry:
>>
>> HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\
>> Start = 4 (Disabled) - Don't start the driver on boot
>
> I'll try the registry tonight, that's a good idea thanks.
>
> Geo.

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