Why won’t Task Scheduler launch Office product

[WSjfsharp]

I’m at my wits end!

I got a new machine with Win 10 Home 2004 and Office Pro 2016 have migrated all of my files – and processes – from my “old” Win 7 machine.

Part of that was an automated process that I had set up to run on a daily basis.  It utilized an Excel “xlsm” file (with an “Auto_Open” macro) to retrieve data from several websites, reformat the data and then populate an Access database.

This process has run for me for over 20 years on various iterations of machines/Windows versions/Office versions – with some modifications due to Excel and web-site changes.

The one consistency has been Task Scheduler insomuch as it has ALWAYS worked!

Until now.

While logged in, I can double-click on the xlsm file and Excel launches and does its thing as expected.  I have even embedded the necessary commands in a cmd file, a vbs script and a ps1 script and they ALL execute as expected.

When I set up the task in Task Scheduler, my main goal is to have the task “Run whether the user is logged on or not” – an option on the “General” tab of the task; I’ve always set up the task to run this way in the past.  However, now, regardless of how I set up the “Action” portion of the task (launch Excel directly passing the file name as a parameter; launch the cmd file; execute the vbs or ps1 script), the task does NOT run.  It won’t even run if I manually try to run the task.  The Last Run Result will say
A specified logon session does not exist. It may already have been terminated. (0x80070520)

If I change the task to “Run only when the user is logged on” it works.

I’ve checked that the Security Policy setting “Network access: Do not allow storage of passwords and credentials for network authentication” is disabled to no avail.

Various Google searches have indicated that it’s an “interactive” issue and that Task Scheduler won’t launch a task if there could(?) be an expected interaction with the desktop.

Huh?

The closest that I’ve been able to get this thing to “almost” work is to change the “user” to be the “Administrators” group – of which I am a member of – and to leave me logged in.  The machine can be locked.  But if I log off or the machine has been rebooted then I’m hosed!

ANYBODY have any suggestions and/or solutions?

Many MANY thanks in advance!!

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