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.

The selected task “{0}” no longer exists, To see the current tasks, click Refresh
The selected task “<task name>” no longer exists. To see the current tasks, click Refresh.Task <task name>: The task image is corrupt or has been tampered with.

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

task_corrupt_1

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.

Task Scheduler service found a misconfiguration in the NT TASK\CreateChoiceProcessTask definition.
Additional Data: Error Value: C:\Windows\System32\browserchoice.exe.

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.

ERROR: The specified task name “CreateChoiceProcessTask” does not exist in the system.

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.
    task_corrupt_2
    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”.


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Ramesh Srinivasan is passionate about Microsoft technologies and he has been a consecutive ten-time recipient of the Microsoft Most Valuable Professional award in the Windows Shell/Desktop Experience category, from 2003 to 2012. He loves to troubleshoot and write about Windows. Ramesh founded Winhelponline.com in 2005.

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

  1. Thanks, your article was very helpful, after trawling through endless bulls#T on the Internet with know alls that know F@K all I finally found someone who knows what they are talking about.

    Thanks once again 🙂

    Reply
  2. Thank you. I had an orphaned task hanging around that would throw up an error every time I opened the Task Scheduler. Sometimes TS would would completely fail to open. Deleting the orphan task from the Registry worked perfectly for me.

    Reply
  3. +1 for your helpful article.

    This is the first time I’ve seen this issue with a client, and this resolved it easily. Thanks, from one overworked IT guy to another.

    Reply
  4. Thank you very much.
    Appreciate the detailed article.
    Even though registry modification does the job. deleting the tasks files from system32 ensures no junk left behind.

    Reply
  5. I have numerous such errors coming up one after another under Task Manager. Are all of them deletable, in any order? Or should I start with the first one that appears; are any of these bad tasks dependent on others?

    Reply
    • Any order seems to work fine – I just did this and finally got rid of about 15 dead tasks that had been hanging around for ages.

  6. What a knowledgeable person you are Ramesh. This article was clear and well explained, and following your simple instructions did the trick for me where all else had failed. Thank you.

    Reply

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