Why is my task always running on Windows 2008 Task Scheduler - windows-server-2008

Question

I've a strange problem on a Windows 2008 Server when trying to schedule a task using Windows Task Scheduler.
Basically I've set-up a task to run daily, calling the Internet Explorer program with a Url.
If I run this task manually from the Task Scheduler (as logged on as the administrator) it works fine, by starting the task and ending correctly.
However now I've tried to set the task to run (as administrator) when the user is not logged on.
Everything appears to be set correctly and I've set the administrator password when prompted. But when I try to run the task from the Task Scheduler to ensure it runs as this user, the task starts, but never ends and is always in the "Running state".
Here is the data from the task event log.
Task Scheduler launched action ""C:\Program Files\Internet Explorer\iexplore.exe"" in instance "{}" of task "\Daily Update".
Task Scheduler launched "{}" instance of task "\Daily Update" for user "administrator" .
Task Engine ":SERVERNAME\administrator:Password:" received a message from Task Scheduler service requesting to launch task "\Daily Update" .
Task Scheduler started "{}" instance of the "\Daily Update" task for user "SERVERNAME\administrator".
Task Scheduler launch task "\Daily Update" , instance "C:\Program Files\Internet Explorer\iexplore.exe" with process ID 5020.
Any ideas why this is happening and how I can over come this problem ?

Answer 1

You are calling a URL using Internet Explorer. IE will be opened and will not close itself.
To call a URL on scheduled time, I suggest you to use free scheduling service, which is born to do this job.
If you insist on this method, just replace IE with a .vb file to call your URL:
'begin VBS script code:
Call LogEntry()
Sub LogEntry()
'Force the script to finish on an error.
On Error Resume Next
'Declare variables
Dim objRequest
Dim URL
'The URL link.
URL = "http://www.example.com/?123"
Set objRequest = CreateObject("Microsoft.XMLHTTP")
'Open the HTTP request and pass the URL to the objRequest object
objRequest.open "GET", URL , false
'Send the HTML Request
objRequest.Send
'Set the object to nothing
Set objRequest = Nothing
End Sub
'end VBS script code
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