fix: windows restart fallback when scheduled task is unregistered (#58943) (thanks @imechZhangLY)

* fix(infra): windows-task-restart fallback to startup entry when schtasks task is unregistered

* fix code style problem

* use /min for startup fallback and assert schtasks pre-check in test

* fix: windows restart fallback when scheduled task is unregistered (#58943) (thanks @imechZhangLY)

---------

Co-authored-by: Luyao Zhang <zhangluyao@microsoft.com>
Co-authored-by: Ayaan Zaidi <hi@obviy.us>

CHANGELOG.md

@@ -132,6 +132,7 @@ Docs: https://docs.openclaw.ai
 - Android/Talk Mode: restore voice replies on gateway-backed talk mode sessions by updating embedded runner transport overrides to the current agent transport API. (#61214) Thanks @obviyus.
 - Amazon Bedrock/aws-sdk auth: stop injecting the fake `AWS_PROFILE` apiKey marker when no AWS auth env vars exist, so instance-role and other default-chain setups keep working without poisoning provider config. (#61194) Thanks @wirjo.
 - Providers/Google: add model-level `cacheRetention` support for direct Gemini system prompts by creating, reusing, and refreshing `cachedContents` automatically on Google AI Studio runs. (#51372) Thanks @rafaelmariano-glitch.
+- Windows/restart: fall back to the installed Startup-entry launcher when the scheduled task was never registered, so `/restart` can relaunch the gateway on Windows setups where `schtasks` install fell back during onboarding. (#58943) Thanks @imechZhangLY.
 
 ## 2026.4.2
 

src/infra/windows-task-restart.test.ts

@@ -6,6 +6,12 @@ import { captureFullEnv } from "../test-utils/env.js";
 
 const spawnMock = vi.hoisted(() => vi.fn());
 const resolvePreferredOpenClawTmpDirMock = vi.hoisted(() => vi.fn(() => os.tmpdir()));
+const resolveTaskScriptPathMock = vi.hoisted(() =>
+  vi.fn((env: Record<string, string | undefined>) => {
+    const home = env.USERPROFILE || env.HOME || os.homedir();
+    return path.join(home, ".openclaw", "gateway.cmd");
+  }),
+);
 
 vi.mock("node:child_process", async () => {
   const { mockNodeBuiltinModule } = await import("../../test/helpers/node-builtin-mocks.js");
@@ -19,6 +25,9 @@ vi.mock("node:child_process", async () => {
 vi.mock("./tmp-openclaw-dir.js", () => ({
   resolvePreferredOpenClawTmpDir: () => resolvePreferredOpenClawTmpDirMock(),
 }));
+vi.mock("../daemon/schtasks.js", () => ({
+  resolveTaskScriptPath: (env: Record<string, string | undefined>) => resolveTaskScriptPathMock(env),
+}));
 
 type WindowsTaskRestartModule = typeof import("./windows-task-restart.js");
 
@@ -64,6 +73,11 @@ describe("relaunchGatewayScheduledTask", () => {
     spawnMock.mockReset();
     resolvePreferredOpenClawTmpDirMock.mockReset();
     resolvePreferredOpenClawTmpDirMock.mockReturnValue(os.tmpdir());
+    resolveTaskScriptPathMock.mockReset();
+    resolveTaskScriptPathMock.mockImplementation((env: Record<string, string | undefined>) => {
+      const home = env.USERPROFILE || env.HOME || os.homedir();
+      return path.join(home, ".openclaw", "gateway.cmd");
+    });
   });
 
   it("writes a detached schtasks relaunch helper", () => {
@@ -145,4 +159,27 @@ describe("relaunchGatewayScheduledTask", () => {
       expect.any(Object),
     );
   });
+
+  it("includes startup fallback", () => {
+    const taskScriptDir = fs.mkdtempSync(path.join(os.tmpdir(), "openclaw-state-"));
+    createdTmpDirs.add(taskScriptDir);
+    const taskScriptPath = path.join(taskScriptDir, "gateway.cmd");
+    fs.writeFileSync(taskScriptPath, "@echo off\r\nrem placeholder\r\n", "utf8");
+    resolveTaskScriptPathMock.mockReturnValue(taskScriptPath);
+
+    spawnMock.mockImplementation((_file: string, args: string[]) => {
+      createdScriptPaths.add(decodeCmdPathArg(args[3]));
+      return { unref: vi.fn() };
+    });
+
+    const result = relaunchGatewayScheduledTask({ OPENCLAW_PROFILE: "work" });
+
+    expect(result.ok).toBe(true);
+    const scriptPath = [...createdScriptPaths][0];
+    const script = fs.readFileSync(scriptPath, "utf8");
+    expect(script).toContain(`schtasks /Query /TN`);
+    expect(script).toContain(":fallback");
+    expect(script).toContain(`start "" /min cmd.exe /d /c`);
+    expect(script).toContain(taskScriptPath);
+  });
 });

src/infra/windows-task-restart.ts

@@ -4,6 +4,7 @@ import fs from "node:fs";
 import path from "node:path";
 import { quoteCmdScriptArg } from "../daemon/cmd-argv.js";
 import { resolveGatewayWindowsTaskName } from "../daemon/constants.js";
+import { resolveTaskScriptPath } from "../daemon/schtasks.js";
 import type { RestartAttempt } from "./restart.js";
 import { resolvePreferredOpenClawTmpDir } from "./tmp-openclaw-dir.js";
 
@@ -18,33 +19,52 @@ function resolveWindowsTaskName(env: NodeJS.ProcessEnv): string {
   return resolveGatewayWindowsTaskName(env.OPENCLAW_PROFILE);
 }
 
-function buildScheduledTaskRestartScript(taskName: string): string {
+function buildScheduledTaskRestartScript(
+  taskName: string,
+  taskScriptPath?: string,
+): string {
   const quotedTaskName = quoteCmdScriptArg(taskName);
-  return [
+  const lines = [
     "@echo off",
     "setlocal",
+    `schtasks /Query /TN ${quotedTaskName} >nul 2>&1`,
+    "if errorlevel 1 goto fallback",
     "set /a attempts=0",
     ":retry",
     `timeout /t ${TASK_RESTART_RETRY_DELAY_SEC} /nobreak >nul`,
     "set /a attempts+=1",
     `schtasks /Run /TN ${quotedTaskName} >nul 2>&1`,
     "if not errorlevel 1 goto cleanup",
-    `if %attempts% GEQ ${TASK_RESTART_RETRY_LIMIT} goto cleanup`,
+    `if %attempts% GEQ ${TASK_RESTART_RETRY_LIMIT} goto fallback`,
     "goto retry",
-    ":cleanup",
-    'del "%~f0" >nul 2>&1',
-  ].join("\r\n");
+    ":fallback",
+  ];
+  if (taskScriptPath) {
+    const quotedScript = quoteCmdScriptArg(taskScriptPath);
+    lines.push(
+      `if exist ${quotedScript} (`,
+      `  start "" /min cmd.exe /d /c ${quotedScript}`,
+      ")",
+    );
+  }
+  lines.push(":cleanup", 'del "%~f0" >nul 2>&1');
+  return lines.join("\r\n");
 }
 
 export function relaunchGatewayScheduledTask(env: NodeJS.ProcessEnv = process.env): RestartAttempt {
   const taskName = resolveWindowsTaskName(env);
+  const taskScriptPath = resolveTaskScriptPath(env);
   const scriptPath = path.join(
     resolvePreferredOpenClawTmpDir(),
     `openclaw-schtasks-restart-${randomUUID()}.cmd`,
   );
   const quotedScriptPath = quoteCmdScriptArg(scriptPath);
   try {
-    fs.writeFileSync(scriptPath, `${buildScheduledTaskRestartScript(taskName)}\r\n`, "utf8");
+    fs.writeFileSync(
+      scriptPath,
+      `${buildScheduledTaskRestartScript(taskName, taskScriptPath)}\r\n`,
+      "utf8",
+    );
     const child = spawn("cmd.exe", ["/d", "/s", "/c", quotedScriptPath], {
       detached: true,
       stdio: "ignore",