Scheduled tasks don't execute when their conversation is not actively focused in Desktop app

Description

Scheduled tasks created via mcp__scheduled-tasks__create_scheduled_task do not execute (or stall indefinitely) unless the user actively clicks on / navigates to the task's conversation in the Claude Desktop app.

Environment

• Platform: Windows 11 (10.0.26200)
• App: Claude Desktop (MSIX) v1.1.9493.0
• Claude Code: v2.1.87

Steps to Reproduce

1. Create a scheduled task with a cron expression (e.g. every 3 hours)
2. Let the task trigger while you are in a different conversation in the Desktop app (or doing anything else in the app that isn't the task's chat)
3. Observe that the task either never starts, or starts but makes no progress ("spins")
4. Click on the task's conversation → it suddenly "wakes up" and begins executing

Expected Behavior

Scheduled tasks should execute autonomously in the background regardless of which conversation the user is currently viewing. The whole point of scheduled tasks is hands-off automation.

Actual Behavior

Tasks only progress when their specific conversation is actively focused/selected in the app UI. If the user is on any other conversation or tab, the task either:

• Never triggers at all
• Triggers but stalls with no progress until the user clicks into the conversation

This is not a Windows power management issue — the app is open, active, and in the foreground. The problem is specifically tied to which conversation is selected within the app.

Impact

This effectively makes scheduled tasks unusable for any kind of unattended automation, since the user must babysit each task by keeping its conversation active.

Additional Context

• Power plan was set to High Performance — no difference
• Windows background app permissions are enabled — no difference
• Sleep/hibernate disabled — no difference
• The issue is consistent and reproducible across multiple scheduled tasks
• Tasks that use Chrome MCP (browser automation) are especially affected since they chain many tool calls