Error “The Selected Task ‘Name’ No longer exists” Starting Task Scheduler

When a scheduled task gets corrupt, errors such as The selected task <taskname> no longer exists or The selected task “{0}” no longer exists may show up every time the Task Scheduler is launched. Here is the full error message verbatim.

Here is a case where the built-in task CreateChoiceProcessTask has become corrupted for some reason, and showing up the error.

Fig 1: The selected task “CreateChoiceProcessTask” no longer exists. To see the current tasks, click Refresh.

Also, this error may be recorded in the event log under Event ID 414.

This article explains how to fix the error “The selected task ‘Name’ no longer exists” in Task Scheduler.

Cause

Error “The selected task ‘Name’ no longer exists” occurs if the scheduled task registry entry gets corrupt or the entry is an leftover after the related program is uninstalled. When a task gets corrupt, in most cases you may need to edit the registry to fix it, as SchTasks.exe or third-party tools like Autoruns wouldn’t list the corrupt task.

Fix “The Selected Task No longer exists” in Task Scheduler

Here is how to fix the “The Selected Task ‘Name’ No longer exists” error when starting Task Scheduler:

Method 1: Delete the Task Using SchTasks

Open an Admin Command Prompt window and type:

schtasks /delete /TN <task name>

In this example, you would be typing:

schtasks /delete /TN "CreateChoiceProcessTask"

If you get the following error, then you need to edit the registry as explained in Method 2 below, to remove the corrupted task.

Method 2: Delete the Task Using Registry Editor

1. Create a System Restore Point.
2. Start Regedit.exe and go to the following key:

   HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Schedule\TaskCache\Tree

3. Use the Find option to search for the task name (eg. “CreateChoiceProcessTask“) want to remove. It will be under one of the sub-folders under Tree, or immediately under “Tree” depending upon where the task was originally created.
4. Note down the GUID string in the right-pane, specified for the value named Id.
   
   GUID string in this example is {1336CAA8-3056-44E8-A14B-71ECDA26EC95}. This is generated randomly when creating a Task.. so it’s NOT the same GUID in every system. Note down this string in Notepad.
5. Right-click the branch CreateChoiceProcessTask and choose Delete
6. Then delete the GUID string subkey you noted earlier, from the following keys:

   HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Schedule\TaskCache\Boot
   (or)
   HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Schedule\TaskCache\Logon
   (or)
   HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Schedule\TaskCache\Maintenance
   (or)
   HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Schedule\TaskCache\Plain
   
   (and)
   
   HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Schedule\TaskCache\Tasks

7. Exit the Registry Editor.

Delete the Task File

After completing the steps in Method 1 or Method 2, open File Explorer and browse C:\Windows\System32\Tasks folder. Search for the file CreateChoiceProcessTask (same as the task name displayed in the error message dialog), and delete the file if found. The file might be present in the Tasks folder or in one of the sub-folders depending up where the task was originally created.

That’s it! Task Scheduler should no longer show the error messages “The selected task no longer exists” and “The selected task “{0}” no longer exists, To see the current tasks, click Refresh”.