If you try to run a scheduled task in Windows XP, it will balk if you don't enter a password (or if your main account has no password, it won't let you proceed).

There are two potential fixes:

Run the task as the administrator (i.e. your-machine-nameadministrator) You can then enter the administrators password. You may need to set this in Computer Management first:

• Right click My Computer
• Click Manage
• In the right hand window, click into Users and Groups
• Right click the Administrator account, and click Change Password
• Enter a password of your choice.

You can then run the task as the system administrator.

Change the system security settings On Windows XP professional, do the following:

• Click Start
• Click into Control Panel
• Click into Administrative Tools
• Click into Local Security Policy
• Click into Security Settings>Local Policies>Security Options
• Ensure the option 'Accounts: Limit local account...' is disabled. It's enabled by default.

On Windows XP home:

• Go to Start>Run>Regedit
• Navigate to the following key: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Lsa
• Find the value name: limitblankpassworduse
• And change the entry. 0 is disabled, 1 is enabled

We use the scheduled tasks frequently with programs like FastCopy to carry out daily backups.