scheduled shutdown of XP
 

Can anyone tell me how to schedule a proper shutdown of my computer, which has and XP OS?

The start > turn off computer > turn off way works fine, but if I do it using the "shutdown -s" command, with which I can schedule a shut down of my computer after a certain length of time, it gets to this stage where monitor displays "it is now safe to shut down windows" which I haven't seen since the days of windows 95, and the fan of the computer just carries on whirrling away.

Is there anyway I can schedule a complete shutdown of my computer, so I can, say, make it play music for a couple of hours when I'm in bed then automatically shuts down after I'm asleep?

its easy to do a "scheduled shutdown of XP" just set ur alarm for when u want it to turn off, go to ur computer and hit it with a big hammer

Re: scheduled shutdown of XP
 

I don't know if it can be done from inside XP, but I do know there is an app around named 'autoshutdown', which does the trick.

does scheduled tasks not work?

You could of course just write a small script that executed "rundll32.dll /shutdown" or whatever the command is and then set scheduled tasks to run it at a specific time.

Alternatively, as a small extension to this, you could do it all in VB and create an 'alarm clock' style program which will allow you to set a time and date which your PC will shut down at.

it is possible with xp

i have 3 programs that do it

im just lazy to email it to him..

or .. u could try the software board at SA, they have a huge list of apps for when u format ur pc, and a link has a small app to it..

what i meant to say was its not possible to do it with sceduled tasks. my bad.

how kind am i?

scroll down to poweroff 3,0,0,15 and get.
does work with xp,and can be used for the purpose you want.

Fkssake - why does NOBODY ever read the manual?
There is a shutdown command (a-la linux but different syntax) in XP you know.

Add this to scheduled tasks and set for the relevant time:
shutdown -s -f -t 30 -c "Scheduled shutdown. Run 'shutdown -a' to abort."

explanation:
shutdown: take a guess
-s: execute a shutdown
-f: kill any applications without warning
-t 30: display warning dialog for 30 seconds before shutdown
-c <message>: not too hard to work out i hope

The things I do for you lot...

:rolleyes:

apparently he tried that

using -f fixed that on mine for some bizzare reason.

:)

doesn't killing all applications without warning cause system instability or something?

if the machine has been shutdown, how can it be unstable ? :P

it'll be unstable the next time I log on?

Target: C:\WINDOWS\system32\shutdown.exe -s -f -m \\mypc -t 0 -c shutdown

Replace the 0 with whatever no. (mins) - well this is what I use with Alt + Ctrl + End (:

no - there's a difference between processes being 'killed' by the OS and you just turning the machine off.
When a process is killed, it is unloaded as fast possible but in a safe way - so if word was open, handles to any open files you had would be released, and THEN word would be closed. This does not, of course, save your work which is why you have to be careful with -f.
If you just turn the machine off, open file handles, registry connections, OBDC/COM links and all that lot are never terminated properly and you risk corrupting something.

Having said that, it's has never happened to me - I've turned this thing straight off in frustration before, and everything's ok still.
XP + NTFS = quite a resiliant combination.

:)

Ehj, I have a problem with the shutdown of my win2k server too :p
My win9x turns off the power itself but my win2k stops at the screen "it's now safe to turn of your computer". How can I make it turn off the power itself?

Make sure you have power management set to ACPI. Not sure if that's your problem but it worked for me when XP wouldn't power down :)

the -f command did nothing for me :(

How do I get to the power management bit?

If you have ACPI enabled you'll probably be able to suspend your system etc.
If it's not, you need to look about in the BIOS to enable it.

:)

and how do I get to the bios part?

as soon as you power on your system, keep pressing the "Del" key every second until it appears (most systems it's AMIBIOS but you can have Phoenix and others)

on my old P2 you had to press the F2 button.... It took me quite a while to figure that out because the BIOS data, usually show on startup, which includes the key you should press to get into the BIOS was replaced by an Intel Logo.
Stupid Intel MoBo's....

wohoo! The program worked. Thanks clarencetheclockworkorange:)