Horrible Windows 7 Task Scheduler - and how to fix it!

Well done Microsoft, the simple & effective task scheduler you've used for years in various versions of Windows you've now managed to over complicate and, more worryingly, break in Windows 7.

Why?.......

Like many Sysadmins I use the scheduler to run command files to automate housekeeping jobs. But not in Windows 7....

If I write  simple text script, say to reboot a NAS drive, and save it as a .cmd, it works fine when run by hand, but in task scheduler it fails. Even worse, the logs seem to suggest it worked... so what have I done wrong?

Battle throught the various tabs in the wizard and check the permissions - all look good.. but then look at the 'optional' box for 'start in'. It's empty by default - and if it stays empty the script won't run. Duh...

So the 'fix' is simply to add 'C:\scripts' or whatever to the 'start in' box and all will be well. So Microsoft doesn't really mean 'optional' does it?

Sigh...