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I am in need of running several php links on a regularly scheduled interval. I am not able to do it on the host through a typical cron set-up because of the memory, data, and time (out) required. The php script take approximately 1-2 hours to run and needs to be run every 4-5 hours. I was planning on using Windows 7 task scheduler to run the link(s) needed and just create a new name for each task, such as URL at 12:00, URL at 4:00 pm, URL at 8pm, etc..

Can someone tell me if it is possible to run a bookmark (or specific URL) on a schedule using Windows 7 or other program?

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What kind of task are you trying to run that takes so long? Because even if you request the URL from a remote machine, the script execution will likely timeout even if the connection doesn't. Otherwise, it would be simple for users to bypass the web host's cron job restrictions by simply scheduling a wget command that triggers the process. It would also be dangerous to expose a very resource-intensive script via a public URL. –  Lèse majesté Mar 11 '12 at 18:46

3 Answers 3

It's very easy to do this.

Selecting your browsers location, I will use internet explorer for the example

both 32 bit & 64 bit machines (running this command in a 64 bit machine will run 64 bit internet explorer)

"C:\Program Files\Internet Explorer\iexplore" http://www.domain.com

32 Bit Internet Explorer (for use on 64 bit machines)

"C:\Program Files (x86)\Internet Explorer\iexplore" http://www.domain.com

You can just stick that command into the task schedule and it'll do it.

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Will the Firefox Reload Every addon work for you?


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You could setup Cygwin or PowerShell scripts to run your URL with curl or wget on your Windows 7.

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