"Object Not Found"?! The Task Scheduler and RDP Gotchas on Microsoft Entra-Joined Devices

Hey everyone, it's Shiichan! Today I found a post about a somewhat surprising limitation that trips up admins managing Microsoft Entra-joined devices, so let me walk you through it.

What was announced?

On the JP Windows Support blog, a member of the Windows Support team named Iwanaga explains the "Task Scheduler and RDP user configuration gotchas on Microsoft Entra-joined devices." It's a practical troubleshooting post aimed at IT admins.

There are two main issues: you can't set an Entra ID account as a Task Scheduler run-as account, and you can't add an Entra ID account to the Remote Desktop Users group from the GUI. Both cases end up hitting an "object not found" error.

Why it matters

Microsoft Entra join lets you manage devices entirely from the cloud without an on-premises Active Directory, and adoption keeps growing. But that also means more admins are running into cases where something that just worked with on-prem AD suddenly doesn't work with Entra join.

Task Scheduler and RDP permission settings in particular come up a lot in server operations and automation scripts, so it's easy to burn time experimenting with settings before understanding the actual cause.

What changes

Reading this post immediately clarifies why the "object not found" error happens. Once you know the cause, you can jump straight to the right workaround, which should meaningfully cut down investigation time for admins running Entra-joined devices.

Dive Deep

The Task Scheduler limitation

If you choose "Run whether user is logged on or not" in a task's properties and specify an Entra ID account as the run-as account, registration fails. The reason is simple: Task Scheduler doesn't support storing credentials for Entra ID accounts. It only accepts local accounts or on-premises Active Directory domain users.

Workarounds include:

• Run computer-wide tasks under the SYSTEM account
• Use a logon script when you need to run something in a specific user's context
• If you truly need domain user credentials, switch to a Microsoft Entra hybrid join configuration and use an on-premises AD user

The Remote Desktop Users group limitation

Trying to add an Entra ID user in the AzureAD\{UPN} format from Settings → System → Remote Desktop also fails with the same object-not-found error. The workaround here is to use the command line or an MDM policy instead.

From an elevated command prompt, you can add the account to the local group like this:

net localgroup "Remote Desktop Users" /add "AzureAD\{userUPN}"

For environments with many devices, deploying Intune's LocalUsersAndGroups policy (CSP) for centralized management is more practical than running the command on each machine individually.

Wrap-up

• On Entra-joined devices, you can't assign an Entra ID account as a Task Scheduler run-as account, because Task Scheduler doesn't support storing Entra ID credentials
• Workarounds include using the SYSTEM account, a local user, or switching to hybrid join
• You also can't add an Entra ID account to the Remote Desktop Users group from the GUI; use the net localgroup command or Intune's LocalUsersAndGroups policy instead
• This one's for IT admins running Entra-joined devices, or anyone who's hit an error configuring task automation or remote access permissions!