Recommended:  Place a short-cut to "Windows Task Scheduler" on your desktop (you will find this very convenient for many purposes in the future).  Do this by clicking on "Start", then "Accessories", then "System Tools".  In the final menu that appears, right click on "Scheduled Tasks".  In the new menu that appears, click on "Send to" and, finally, "Desktop (create short cut)".

Open "Windows Task Scheduler" by clicking on your new desktop short cut.

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At the top of the "Scheduled Tasks" window, click on "Add Scheduled Task".  The "Scheduled Task Wizard" dialog will open.

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These seven executables correspond to the seven download lists under the "Download File Settings" tab in the MasterDATAlink program.  Running any one of these seven programs initiates a download using the corresponding MasterDATAlink download list.  For now, let's set up the "All Periods" list.  You can change or add additional schedules later if you wish.

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Click on "RunListAllPeriods.exe" and then the "Open" button.

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A new "Scheduled Task Wizard" dialog window appears with the name "RunListAllPeriods" in the top text box.  You can name this new task whatever you wish, but the name that is there, in this case, is descriptive for our purposes.

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In the next  "Scheduled Task Wizard" dialog window that appears enter a time a few hours or so prior to the U.S. markets opening time of 9:31 AM EST.  RunListAllPeriods runs the full download for all index and ETF composite datafiles for all time periods (541 total files).  Depending on your internet connection speed, this download can take anywhere from a few minutes or less to 30 minutes or more.  This is the long download.  If you allow this download to run nightly, your intraday updates will only require a minute or two at most to update when U.S. markets are open.

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Select "Everyday".  We recommend "Everyday" because we do data maintenance on the historical composite breadth datafiles every day, but if you don't work on weekends, "Weekdays" is fine.  For now, please select  "Everyday".  You can change this later if you wish.

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Enter the username and password you use for your computer (not for the MasterDATA web sites).  Click on the "Next" button.

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In this final "Scheduled Task Wizard" dialog window, click on the "Finished" button.

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You're done with this schedule.  Your computer is now configured to download the entire MasterDATACSV datafile for each MasterDATA index and ETF for all data periods every day of the week ("All Periods").

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If you wish, try running the schedule now by right clicking on the new schedule you just created and then clicking on "Run" in the menu that appears.  Remember, when run from a schedule, MasterDATAlink runs invisibly in the background.  If you wish to follow the download progress, open the "C:\MasterDATA\CSVFiles\Daily" directory and watch the files as they download (you may have to occasionally press the "F5" key to refresh the display.

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As you set up other download lists, you can add them to Windows Task Scheduler also.  Lists 1 through 5 are updates and require less than a few seconds to a minute or two depending on your internet connection speed.  Use these downloads during the trading day to keep your composite breadth datafiles current.  The "All Daily" and "All Periods" Lists are full historical file downloads retrieving the entire, start date to current date, datafile.  These two downloads require significantly more time than Lists 1 through 5 and should generally be used outside of U.S. market hours.

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