Windows job file format

Overview

On Windows a .JOB file specifies task configuration. A .JOB file consists of two main sections, fixed-length and variable-length.

Fixed-length section

The fixed-length section is 68 bytes in size and consists of:

offset	size	value	description
0	2		Product version
2	2	1	File (format) version
4	16		Job UUID (or GUID)
20	2		Application name size offset The offset is relative from the start of the file.
22	2		Trigger offset The offset is relative from the start of the file.
24	2		Error Retry Count
26	2		Error Retry Interval
28	2		Idle Deadline
30	2		Idle Wait
32	4		Priority
36	4		Maximum Run Time
40	4		Exit Code
44	4		Status
48	4		Flags
52	16		Last run time Consists of a SYSTEMTIME

Product version

Value	Identifier	Description
0x0400		Windows NT 4.0
0x0500		Windows 2000
0x0501		Windows XP
0x0600		Windows Vista
0x0601		Windows 7
0x0602		Windows 8
0x0603		Windows 8.1
0x0a00		Windows 10

Priority

Value	Identifier	Description
0x00800000	REALTIME_PRIORITY_CLASS	The task can run at the highest possible priority. The threads of a real-time priority class process preempt the threads of all other processes, including operating system processes performing important tasks.
0x01000000	HIGH_PRIORITY_CLASS	The task performs time-critical tasks that can be executed immediately for it to run correctly. The threads of a high-priority class process preempt the threads of normal or idle priority class processes.
0x02000000	IDLE_PRIORITY_CLASS	The task can run in a process whose threads run only when the machine is idle, and are preempted by the threads of any process running in a higher priority class.
0x04000000	NORMAL_PRIORITY_CLASS	The task has no special scheduling requirements.

Status

Value	Identifier	Description
0x00041300	SCHED_S_TASK_READY	Task is not running but is scheduled to run at some time in the future.
0x00041301	SCHED_S_TASK_RUNNING	Task is currently running.
0x00041305	SCHED_S_TASK_NOT_SCHEDULED	The task is not running and has no valid triggers.

Flags

See: Flags

SYSTEMTIME

offset	size	description
0	2	Year
2	2	Month
4	2	Weekday
6	2	Day
8	2	Hour
10	2	Minute
12	2	Second
14	2	Milli second

Variable-length section

The variable-length section is variable in size and consists of:

offset	size	description
0	2	Running Instance Count
2	...	Application Name Consists of a Unicode string.
...	...	Parameters Consists of a Unicode string.
...	...	Working Directory Consists of a Unicode string.
...	...	Author Consists of a Unicode string.
...	...	Comment Consists of a Unicode string.
...	...	User Data
...	...	Reserved Data
...	...	Triggers
...	...	Job Signature

These values are stored as Unicode strings.

Unicode string

offset	size	value	description
0	2		Number of characters The value will be 0 if the string is empty.
2	...		String UTF-16 little-endian with end-of-string character

User Data

offset	size	value	description
0	2		data size
2	...		data

Reserved Data

The Reserved Data is similar in structure as the User Data though if a size is set, is should be 8 and the Reserved Data consists of:

offset	size	value	description
0	2	8	data size
2	4		Start Error
6	4		Task Flags

Triggers

offset	size	value	description
0	2		Number of triggers
2	...		Array of triggers

Trigger

offset	size	description
0	2	Trigger Size
2	2	Reserved1
4	2	Begin Year
6	2	Begin Month
8	2	Begin Day
10	2	End Year
12	2	End Month
14	2	End Day
16	2	Start Hour
18	2	Start Minute
20	4	Minutes Duration
24	4	Minutes Interval
28	4	Flags
32	4	Trigger Type
36	2	TriggerSpecific0
38	2	TriggerSpecific1
40	2	TriggerSpecific2
42	2	Padding
44	2	Reserved2
46	2	Reserved3

Trigger type

Value	Identifier	Description
0x00000000	ONCE	Not used
0x00000001	DAILY
0x00000002	WEEKLY
0x00000003	MONTHLYDATE
0x00000004	MONTHLYDOW
0x00000005	EVENT_ON_IDLE	Not used
0x00000006	EVENT_AT_SYSTEMSTART	Not used
0x00000007	EVENT_AT_LOGON	Not used

Job Signature

offset	size	value	description
0	2	1	Signature version
2	2	1	Minimum client version
4	64		Signature

External Links

.JOB File Format, by Microsoft