Amazon Kindle 3GFollowing on from my earlier post about “Automated free news for Kindle using Calibre” (link HERE), nickredding over at Mobileread.com suggested a much simpler approach. Rather than using a separate wake up timer application to wake my PC up, ready to run Calibre – I should use the one built into Windows.

Windows Task Scheduler allows you to schedule your PC to wake up and run a specific application at a specific time.

Calibre will have to be set up the same, in terms of scheduling the download of news from specific sites at specific times, so as to coincide with the task scheduler, but it just means you don’t have to download the separate wake timer.

The Windows help file on Windows Task Scheduler comes with instructions (HERE).

The full forum discussion at mobileread.com is available HERE.

The earlier post about automating free news for Kindle using Calibre is available HERE

 

Windows Task Scheduler instructions

You must be logged on as an administrator to perform these steps. If you aren’t logged on as an administrator, you can only change settings that apply to your user account.

If you use a specific program on a regular basis, you can use the Task Scheduler wizard to create a task that opens the program for you automatically according to the schedule you choose. For example, if you use a financial program on a certain day each month, you can schedule a task that opens the program automatically to avoid the risk of forgetting to open it yourself.

  1. Click to open Task Scheduler.‌ If you are prompted for an administrator password or confirmation, type the password or provide confirmation.

  2. Click the Action menu, and then click Create Basic Task.

  3. Type a name for the task and an optional description, and then click Next.

  4. Do one of the following:

    • To select a schedule based on the calendar, click Daily, Weekly, Monthly, or One time, click Next; specify the schedule you want to use, and then click Next.

    • To select a schedule based on common recurring events, click When the computer starts or When I log on, and then click Next.

    • To select a schedule based on specific events, click When a specific event is logged, click Next; specify the event log and other information using the drop-down lists, and then click Next.

  5. To schedule a program to start automatically, click Start a program, and then click Next.

  6. Click Browse to find the program you want to start, and then click Next.

  7. Click Finish.