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SCHED_E_MALFORMEDXML
SCHED_E_MALFORMEDXML means the task definition is not well-formed XML, so Task Scheduler cannot reliably interpret its schema-level content. It is earlier than a Task Scheduler schema error: parse failures such as unmatched tags, broken escaping, or invalid character data prevent structural validation altogether.
What to preserve
- Save the exact byte sequence sent to registration, including encoding declaration and any data substituted by the installer or management script.
- Parse it with a strict XML parser before calling the Task Scheduler API; report the parser line and column together with the task path.
- Inspect command arguments, descriptions, and user supplied text for unescaped XML characters introduced during templating.
Then validate the schema
Fix the XML well-formedness issue first, then validate against the Task Scheduler schema. A document can pass the parser and still fail later with an unexpected node, namespace, missing node, or invalid value error.
Microsoft: Task Scheduler status codes · Microsoft: Task Scheduler schema
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