Windows Calendar problems

[MikeH]

I hope this is the right place for this. I don't see a Calendar group.

I have had several occasions when Windows Calendar did not pop up with
appointments until a day or two had gone by and it then informs me that the
appointment or whatever is x days overdue. Not very helpful obviously. My
computer was on and logged in at least once on the days of the appointment.

Another problem. Because of the afore-mentioned problem I put Windows
Calendar in my Startup folder so I would be forced to see the calendar when
I first log in. I have had a couple of crashes now apparently related to
this. Once the calendar wouldn't close and the second time the computer
froze after displaying the calendar; I was forced to do an unstructured
shutdown; and this in turn generated raid 1 disk problems that took hours to
be resolved.

Anybody have any observations or suggestions?

 

[Jon]

I hope this is the right place for this. I don't see a Calendar group.

I have had several occasions when Windows Calendar did not pop up with
appointments until a day or two had gone by and it then informs me that
the appointment or whatever is x days overdue. Not very helpful
obviously. My computer was on and logged in at least once on the days of
the appointment.

Another problem. Because of the afore-mentioned problem I put Windows
Calendar in my Startup folder so I would be forced to see the calendar
when I first log in. I have had a couple of crashes now apparently
related to this. Once the calendar wouldn't close and the second time the
computer froze after displaying the calendar; I was forced to do an
unstructured shutdown; and this in turn generated raid 1 disk problems
that took hours to be resolved.

Anybody have any observations or suggestions?

Windows Calendar is scheduled to run in the background when you log in via a
scheduled task. Having duplicate startups might be causing the crashes in
that you're trying to create 2 instances.

Perhaps check the history of the task in Task Scheduler, to see if there are
any clues as to why it didn't run at the appointed times.

Task Scheduler > Task Scheduler Library > Microsoft > Windows > Windows
Calendar > Double-click Reminders task > History tab > Pause for breath >
Double-click an item for more info

 

[MikeH]

I looked at that history and didn't see any entries for several days. An
important reminder was on April 16th and there were no entries between the
14th and the 17th.

 

[Jon]

I looked at that history and didn't see any entries for several days. An
important reminder was on April 16th and there were no entries between the
14th and the 17th.

Well there's a clue. Possibly there was a problem with the task scheduler
service during that period ie that it stopped running for whatever reason,
and hence wasn't recording any events or running any scheduled tasks. If
you tend to use sleep mode and hibernation mode a fair amount, and avoid
rebooting , it's possible that scheduler remained off for a period. Check to
see if any other scheduled tasks ran during that period.

Alternatively, if calendar crashed at any time during that period, then that
can also help to explain it. When you launch calendar, the task in task
scheduler is temporarily deleted. It is recreated when calendar exits
normally.You can see this by opening up Task Scheduler and hunting for the
task while calendar is running. If for some reason it exits abnornally then
the task won't be recreated, and so you're effectively left with no
reminders (you can simulate a crash by killing it via Task Manager).
Rerunning calendar and exiting normally recreates the task with reminders
set.

So those would be my top 2 theories - Task Scheduler service not running, or
Calendar having ended abnormally.

 

[Philo]

I think it might be to do with reminders that fall due while the computer is
asleep. If this happens, Windows Calendar doesn't get to queue any more
reminders. This situation persists until Windows Calendar is next started
(e.g. next log-in). If the user makes much use of standby, this might be
days later.

Philo

 

[Philo]

I think it might be to do with reminders that fall due while the computer is

asleep. If this happens, Windows Calendar doesn't get to queue any more
reminders. This situation persists until Windows Calendar is next started
(e.g. next log-in). If the user makes much use of standby, this might be
days later.

To expand on this.. From Task Scheduler it seems that Windows Calendar
queues just one reminder at a time. The program does the queueing at the
time that it is closed. In the Task Scheduler's "Settings" tab for the
reminder, there is no tick in the box labelled "Run task as soon as possible
after a scheduled task is missed". (You can tick this manually, via
"Properties", but the next reminder will still have it unticked so the
problem remains.)

If we could get Window Calendar to tick this box, each time it queues a
reminder, would the problem dissolve? Having read KB930133
<http://support.microsoft.com/kb/930133>, I'm not sure.

I was hoping Vista SP1 would fix this, but it hasn't. Not for me, anyway.

Philo

 

[Philo]

Here is a possible solution. I have tried it myself just now, and it seemed
to work. If it works for you too, please say so. Thanks.

In Task Scheduler, create a new task. It might as well be in the Windows
Calendar folder. As trigger, use "On workstation unlock...". As action,
specify "Start a program" and ""C:\Program Files \Windows
Calendar\WinCal.exe" /reminder". On the Conditions tab, untick "only if the
computer is on AC power".

The effect is to ping Windows Calendar in the background every time you
unlock the computer. For me, this is every time I bring the computer out of
standby. If a reminder is overdue, Windows Calendar says so. If not,
Windows Calendar closes.

Philo