Where I work, we implemented exactly this kind of solution using a Windows service for scheduling. It did / does work, but in hindsight, I would have to agree with the author. Its a bit too "low-level" for all it does. Granted, I dont like task scheduler, but it IS made for these kinds of scenarios. And the other thing to think about is maintenance. Putting stuff like this in as a Windows service takes it out of the proper context for troubleshooting. Folks who do the support of a system may (rightfully so) think that the buggy scheduled process is running via task scheduler, when its actually tucked away on a machine as a service. It just makes sense to put it where Microsoft recommends.