Q&A for How to Automatically Shut Down Your Computer at a Specified Time

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Does this work even if a game or program is running?

Community Answer

Yes. Anything that is running will most likely turn off without a problem.

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Question

Does this work in 64-bit Win7?

Community Answer

The option is available in Windows 7 and 8. It doesn't matter whether it is a 32-bit or 64-bit system.

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I don't understand Step 4. What is the shutdown.exe file?

Tim Newman

Community Answer

The shutdown.exe file is located in C:/Windows/System32/shutdown.exe. Opening this file will shut your computer down.

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Question

Is there a way to include in either the task scheduler script or the batch file a command to save your work on all open programs, or on some list of programs that may be open?

Community Answer

By means of the application, your best bet is to print the screen.

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Question

How can I modify/abort this action?

Julie

Community Answer

Go back to Step 1 and instead of clicking "Create" click "Display all running tasks." Then you can click on the task you created to edit or delete it.

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Question

Does the PC need to be restarted for this automatic shutdown to kick in?

Community Answer

No, it doesn't.

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Question

What kind of encoding is used in the .bat file? I'm running Windows 10 and it asks if I want ANSI, Unicode, Unicode Big Endian or UTF-8. I tried saving it simply as timer.bat, but got nothing.

Jason Danner

Community Answer

Any encoding should work. Try saving as timer.cmd.

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What does the /s argument do?

Tim Newman

Community Answer

The /s argument is to shut down the local computer within the shutdown.exe file.

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Question

How do I find the problem of why my computer shuts down?

Julie

Community Answer

Go back to Step 1 and instead of clicking "Create" click "Display all running tasks." Then you can click on the task you created to edit or delete it.

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Question

How do I change the time on my computer?

Community Answer

You can go into your computer's settings and find the Date/Time section to change the time on your computer. (The exact steps will depend on your system.)

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Question

Is there a way to schedule a different time for each night of the week?

Julie

Community Answer

No, not through the Task Scheduler. The only options are listed as "Daily, Weekly, Monthly, One time, When the computer sleeps, When I log on, or When a specific event is logged." If you want to change the basic parameters of this command, you must write a program. Perhaps you can find a more specific program online to do this for you through CNET downloads file.

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Question

How do I stop my computer from automatically shutting down when I enter certain apps?

Community Answer

It may be an issue of compatibility. Check for system updates, for starters.

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Question

Is there a way to use a timer rather than your PC checking the time using method 4?

Jabir Abdullah Haian

Community Answer

In method 4, delete the ":W" lines that check for time constantly. And instead, change the last line to "shutdown /s /t 1800". It will shut down your PC after 1800 seconds or 30 minutes. Change this to set your own timer.

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Question

Is it possible to set a timer for 30 minutes. So that, if the computer is in sleep for more than 30 minutes, it should shutdown itself automatically?

Arrogance

Top Answerer

No. When a computer is "sleeping", the operating system is not running any programs. It is already in a state similar to being shutdown, except that it can wake up and resume faster.

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Question

In Windows 10, I wanted my computer to shutdown at 12:00 AM every night. These instructions cause it to go to sleep at 12:00 AM lights and fans continue to work all night. What are the steps for shutdown?

R2_d2000

Top Answerer

If some programs are open, then it may prevent the computer from shutting down. For example, if Microsoft Word is open and it has an unsaved file, then the computer will not shut down.

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Question

Is it possible to do it for hibernate?

R2_d2000

Top Answerer

Yes. For the argument, instead of using /s, use /h instead. This will use the hibernate option instead of shutdown.

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Question

Can it be manually started again before the scheduled time and can I prevent that?

R2_d2000

Top Answerer

No. It would be better to use parental controls to control when the computer can be used.

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Question

Is the correct command on some computers: shutdown -s -t SSSS . SSSS: seconds?

Buckley cherry090

Community Answer

In Create Shortcut wizard, type or copy this command below into the box of Type the location of the item and click Next. C:\WINDOWS\system32\Shutdown.exe -s -t number In the above command, 300 seconds (5 minutes) represents the number of seconds for the execution time. You can also change -s into -m which represents minutes.

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