How to start or stop Automatic Maintenance in Windows 11

Automatic maintenance in Windows 11 refers to scheduled periods during which system updates, patches, and maintenance tasks are applied to a computer system or network infrastructure automatically, without requiring manual intervention. These maintenance events are crucial for keeping software, hardware, and security configurations up-to-date and running smoothly.

Here are some common tasks that fall under automatic maintenance:

Security Scans and Checks: Conducting regular security scans, vulnerability assessments, and malware checks to identify and address potential security risks.

Hardware Health Monitoring: Monitoring the condition of hardware components to detect any potential issues or failures.

Software Updates and Patching: Automatically installing software updates, security patches, and bug fixes to ensure that the system is protected against vulnerabilities and is up-to-date with the latest features and improvements.

Disk Cleanup and Optimization: Performing tasks like removing unnecessary files, defragmenting disks, and optimizing storage to free up space and enhance overall system performance.

Backup and Recovery: Automatically creating backups of critical data and ensuring that recovery processes are functioning properly in case of unexpected failures or data loss.

Network Maintenance: Performing tasks related to network configuration, firewall management, and ensuring that network devices are functioning optimally.

Database Maintenance: Automating tasks like database cleanup, indexing, and optimization to improve the performance of database-driven applications.

Scheduled Tasks: Running specific tasks or scripts at predefined times, such as database backups, report generation, or system checks.

Log File Management: Automatically archiving and managing log files to ensure that they don’t consume excessive disk space and to facilitate troubleshooting.

Compliance Checks: Verifying that the system configurations and software versions comply with industry standards, regulations, and company policies.

Notification and Reporting: Notifying administrators or users about the status of maintenance tasks and generating reports detailing the tasks performed and any issues encountered.

Here’s how you can start or stop Automatic Maintenance in Windows 11.

How to start or stop Automatic Maintenance in Windows 11

Method 1: Using Control Panel

1. Open the Control Panel and click on Security and Maintenance icon.
2. Click/tap on Maintenance to expand it open.
3. Under Automatic Maintenance, click on Start maintenance if maintenance is currently not running. Else, you can click on Stop maintenance if it is currently running.

You can now close the Control Panel now.

Method 2: Using Terminal

1. Open Windows Terminal (Admin).
2. Paste the command below to start Automatic Maintenance into Windows Terminal (Admin) and press Enter.

MSchedExe.exe Start

To stop Automatic Maintenance, you can use this command:

MSchedExe.exe Stop

That’s it!