How to Shutdown/Restart Your PC Automatically Using CMD

Do you want to schedule a shutdown or a restart on the fly?

Are you seeking more flexibility when it comes to shutting down your PC?

Using the Command Prompt to shut down your PC at a specific time can be beneficial especially when you can’t wait for a task to finish.

This way you will not only save time, but you are going to become more productive.

In this tutorial, you will discover a new way to schedule or plan your shutdown using a CMD utility I made just for you

Let’s dive in!

Shutdown/Restart Your Windows PC With CMD

Schedule Shutdown With CMD

There is an age-old command in Windows called shutdown with many attributes we will discover later.

For example to shutdown the PC after 1 hour (3600 sec’) we will use this command in Run:

shutdown -s -t 3600

This will trigger a notification in windows telling you the news.

Schedule Restart With CMD

Same thing if we want to restart, except this time we use -r instead of -s:

shutdown -r -t 3600

Cancel Shutdown Schedule

If you want to cancel the scheduled shutdown or restart just use this command:

shutdown -a

You will get this notification as a confirmation of canceling.

Free CMD Utility to Schedule a Shutdown/Restart

Here is a very simple script that you can use in order to schedule or plan your automatic shutdown or restart with ease.

Just open a new notepad file and paste the following, save as easytutorial.cmd.

@Echo off
GOTO MENU

:MENU
Echo !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Echo !! Easytutorial's Shutdown Planner !!
Echo !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Echo 1 - System Shutdown Planner
Echo 2 - System Restart Planner
Echo 3 - Cancel Planning
Echo !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
SET /p Action=Your choice (1,2 or 3) :

IF %Action% == 1 GOTO PlanShutdown
IF %Action% == 2 GOTO PlanRestart
IF %Action% == 3 GOTO CancelPlanning
IF %Action% GTR 3 GOTO Incorrect

:CancelPlanning
shutdown -a
Echo Planning Canceled
Goto Fin

:PlanRestart
Echo !! Info : 1 hour = 3600 seconds !!
SET /p Seconds= Seconds before Restart:
IF '%Seconds%' == '' GOTO PlanRestart
shutdown -r -t %Seconds%
GOTO Fin

:PlanShutdown
Echo !! Info : 1 hour = 3600 seconds !!
SET /p Seconds= Seconds before Shutdown:
IF '%Seconds%' == '' GOTO PlanShutdown
shutdown -s -f -t %Seconds%
GOTO Fin

:Incorrect
CLS
Echo !!! Attention : Value Entered Incorrect !!!
GOTO Menu

:Fin

Create Shutdown Shortcut

You can always create a shortcut to schedule your shutdown. Here is the location you should use:

%SystemRoot%\System32\shutdown.exe -f -s -t 3600

And your shortcut is ready!

Additional Details About the Shutdown Command

Here are some additional details about the other attributes of this shutdown command:

There you have it!

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Thanks for sharing!