To solve CAPTCHAs from Windows Task Scheduler, register a task that runs your virtual environment’s python.exe directly, give the script its own retries and HTTP timeouts, and let the task’s time limit catch whatever else goes wrong. That is the whole task scheduler captcha setup, and CapSkip runs on the same PC, so there is no queue to host and no per-solve cost. The defaults hide four traps, and this guide covers each one. The working folder is System32, so a relative file name fails. One hung run silently ends the schedule. A cmd wrapper leaves the real Python process running when the scheduler kills the task. And the restart-on-failure setting does not restart a script that exits with an error.<\/p>\n
Put the job in one folder with its own virtual environment. The task will run the python.exe inside that environment by its full path, so it needs nothing from your PATH and no activated shell.<\/p>\n
# PowerShell: make a job folder with its own Python environment\nmkdir C:\\CapSkipJobs\ncd C:\\CapSkipJobs\npython -m venv venv\n.\\venv\\Scripts\\python.exe -m pip install capskip==1.3.0 requests<\/pre>\n<\/div>\nThe SDK version is pinned because the timeout patch in Step 2 reaches into the SDK’s internals. Test it again before you move to a newer version. Task Manager shows two python.exe processes for every run: the environment’s launcher and the real interpreter it starts. That is normal.<\/p>\n
Step 2: read settings, log to a file and give the SDK a timeout<\/h2>\n
Save the code from Steps 2 to 4 in one file, C:\\CapSkipJobs\\job.py, in the order shown. The whole file is repeated at the end of this guide. The job reads its settings from environment variables and passes them to the client itself, because the SDK does not read them on its own. It also has defaults, so the file runs without any setup. CAPSKIP_API_KEY is only needed if you switch on API key validation in CapSkip.<\/p>\n
\nimport functools\nimport logging\nimport os\nimport re\nimport sys\nimport time\nimport types\n\nimport requests\nimport capskip.api\nfrom capskip import ApiException, CapSkip, NetworkException, TimeoutException\n\nHOST = os.getenv('CAPSKIP_HOST', '127.0.0.1')\nPORT = int(os.getenv('CAPSKIP_PORT', '8080'))\nAPI_KEY = os.getenv('CAPSKIP_API_KEY', 'YOUR_API_KEY')\nSITE = os.getenv('SITE_URL', 'https:\/\/example.com').rstrip('\/')\nUSER = os.getenv('SITE_USER', 'YOUR_USERNAME')\nPASSWORD = os.getenv('SITE_PASSWORD', 'YOUR_PASSWORD')\nLOG_FILE = os.getenv('JOB_LOG', r'C:\\CapSkipJobs\\job.log')\nATTEMPTS = int(os.getenv('JOB_ATTEMPTS', '3'))\nPAUSE = int(os.getenv('JOB_PAUSE', '30'))<\/pre>\n<\/div>\nTask Scheduler has no field for environment variables, and a task does not see a variable you set only in a terminal. A user variable set with setx does reach it, even one set after the task was registered: the next run picks it up, with no sign-out. The values sit in your account’s registry as plain text, about as private as a .env file.<\/p>\n
\n# Task Scheduler has no environment field. User variables work:\n# the next run of the task sees them, with no sign-out needed.\nsetx SITE_URL "https:\/\/example.com"\nsetx SITE_USER "YOUR_USERNAME"\nsetx SITE_PASSWORD "YOUR_PASSWORD"<\/pre>\n<\/div>\nNext come the log file and a timeout for the SDK. Task Scheduler throws away a program’s output, so print() shows nowhere, and the job writes a log file at an absolute path instead. With no working folder set, the task runs in C:\\Windows\\System32, where a relative file name such as job.log fails with a PermissionError.<\/p>\n
\nos.makedirs(os.path.dirname(LOG_FILE), exist_ok=True)\nlogging.basicConfig(filename=LOG_FILE, level=logging.INFO,\n format='%(asctime)s pid=%(process)d %(levelname)s %(message)s')\nlog = logging.getLogger('job')\n\n# The SDK sets no HTTP timeouts, so give every CapSkip call one: connect 5 s, read 30 s.\n# This reaches into the SDK, so the guard fails loudly if a newer version changes it.\nif not hasattr(capskip.api, 'requests'):\n log.error('capskip.api.requests is gone: check the timeout patch')\n sys.exit(1)\ncapskip.api.requests = types.SimpleNamespace(\n RequestException=requests.RequestException,\n post=functools.partial(requests.post, timeout=(5, 30)),\n get=functools.partial(requests.get, timeout=(5, 30)))<\/pre>\n<\/div>\nThe last lines fix a problem the scheduler cannot. The CapSkip Python SDK sets no HTTP timeout, so if CapSkip accepts a connection and then never answers, the call waits forever, and the recaptchaTimeout setting only counts between polls. The patch gives every SDK call a 5 second connect timeout and a 30 second read timeout. A submit that never gets an answer then fails as a NetworkException after 30 seconds. A result poll that never gets an answer ends as a TimeoutException shortly after recaptchaTimeout is over: 333 seconds with its default of 300. The guard above the patch stops the job with a line in the log if a newer SDK no longer has that attribute, instead of letting it run without timeouts. The guide to solving CAPTCHAs in APScheduler<\/a> explains the same patch in more detail.<\/p>\n
Step 3: fetch the form, solve it and post it<\/h2>\n
The job loads the login page in a requests Session, reads the CSRF token and the sitekey from it, and asks CapSkip for a token. One Session carries the cookie that goes with the CSRF token. The post sends the Referer too, because some frameworks, such as Django over HTTPS, reject a form post without one. Replace the paths and field names with the ones your site uses.<\/p>\n
\ndef fetch_login(session):\n """Load the login page: the session cookie, the CSRF token and the sitekey."""\n page = session.get(SITE + '\/login', timeout=(5, 30))\n if page.status_code != 200:\n raise RuntimeError('login page returned HTTP %d' % page.status_code)\n csrf = re.search(r'name="csrfmiddlewaretoken" value="([^"]+)"', page.text)\n key = re.search(r'data-sitekey="([^"]+)"', page.text)\n if not csrf or not key:\n raise RuntimeError('login page has no CSRF token or no sitekey')\n return csrf.group(1), key.group(1)\n\n\ndef solve(sitekey):\n solver = CapSkip(apiKey=API_KEY, host=HOST, port=PORT)\n return solver.recaptcha(sitekey=sitekey, url=SITE + '\/login')['code']<\/pre>\n<\/div>\nsolver.recaptcha returns a result whose code field is the token. The post below puts it in the g-recaptcha-response field next to the other form fields. A failed login often answers with status 200 and the login form again, so the job also treats a page that still has a password field as a rejection. Change that test to fit your site, because a job that reports success for a rejected login is worse than one that fails.<\/p>\n
\ndef submit(session, csrf, token):\n """Post the login form, the way the browser would, Referer included."""\n resp = session.post(SITE + '\/login', timeout=(5, 30),\n headers={'Referer': SITE + '\/login'},\n data={'csrfmiddlewaretoken': csrf, 'username': USER,\n 'password': PASSWORD, 'g-recaptcha-response': token})\n # Many sites answer a failed login with 200 and the form again.\n if resp.status_code != 200 or 'type="password"' in resp.text:\n raise RuntimeError('login rejected: HTTP %d %s' % (resp.status_code, resp.text[:120]))\n log.info('login accepted: %s', resp.text[:40])<\/pre>\n<\/div>\nFor other CAPTCHA types, call the matching SDK method and change the form field name in the post. The guide to solving reCAPTCHA v2 in Python<\/a> covers the same call in a plain script.<\/p>\n
Step 4: retry in the script and exit with a code<\/h2>\n
A scheduled job needs a plan for failure, and Task Scheduler’s own restart setting is not one. RestartCount and RestartInterval restarted a task only when it failed to start: a missing program was started again about one and two minutes later. A script that exited with code 1 or 3, or died with an uncaught exception, ran once and was never restarted. So the retry lives in the script.<\/p>\n
\ndef run():\n session = requests.Session() # a fresh session means a fresh CSRF token\n csrf, sitekey = fetch_login(session)\n log.info('solving reCAPTCHA v2, sitekey %s', sitekey)\n submit(session, csrf, solve(sitekey))\n\n\ndef is_retryable(exc):\n if isinstance(exc, (NetworkException, TimeoutException, requests.RequestException)):\n return True\n return isinstance(exc, ApiException) and 'UNSOLVABLE' in str(exc)<\/pre>\n<\/div>\nFour failures are worth another attempt: CapSkip not answering, a TimeoutException, ERROR_CAPTCHA_UNSOLVABLE (CapSkip could not solve this task, and a fresh try can), and the site itself not answering. Anything else, such as a rejected login or a page with no CSRF token, is fatal, because a retry would repeat it.<\/p>\n
\ndef main():\n log.info('start, CapSkip at %s:%s, site %s', HOST, PORT, SITE)\n for attempt in range(1, ATTEMPTS + 1):\n try:\n run()\n log.info('done, exit 0')\n return 0\n except Exception as exc:\n retry = is_retryable(exc)\n log.warning('attempt %d\/%d failed, %s: %s: %s', attempt, ATTEMPTS,\n 'retryable' if retry else 'fatal', type(exc).__name__, exc,\n exc_info=not retry)\n if not retry:\n return 1\n if attempt < ATTEMPTS:\n time.sleep(PAUSE)\n log.error('giving up after %d attempts, exit 3', ATTEMPTS)\n return 3\n\n\nif __name__ == '__main__':\n sys.exit(main())<\/pre>\n<\/div>\nThe job makes up to three attempts, 30 seconds apart, and then exits with a code that Task Scheduler shows as the Last Run Result.<\/p>\n