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:
Description | Parameter |
---|---|
Display help. | /? |
Display the graphical user interface (GUI). | /i |
Log off. This cannot be used with /m or /d options. | /l |
Shutdown the computer. | /s |
Shutdown the computer. On the next boot, if Automatic Restart Sign-On is enabled, automatically sign in and lock the last interactive user. | /sg |
After sign in, restart any registered applications. | |
Full shutdown and restart the computer. | /r |
Full shutdown and restart the computer. After the system is rebooted, if Automatic Restart Sign-On is enabled, automatically sign in and lock the last interactive user. | /g |
After sign in, restart any registered applications. | |
Abort a system shutdown. | /a |
This can only be used during the time-out period. | |
Combine with /fw to clear any pending boots to the firmware. | |
Turn off the local computer with no time-out or warning. | /p |
It can be used with /d and /f options. | |
Hibernate the local computer. | /h |
It can be used with the /f option. | |
Performs a shutdown of the computer and prepares it for a fast startup. | /hybrid |
Must be used with /s option. | |
Combine with a shutdown option to cause the next boot to go to the firmware user interface. | /fw |
Document the reason for an unexpected shutdown of a computer. | /e |
Go to the advanced boot options menu and restart the computer. | /o |
Must be used with /r option. | |
Specify the target computer | /m \\computer |
Set the time-out period before shutdown to xxx seconds. | /t xxx |
The valid range is 0-315360000 (10 years), with a default of 30. If the time-out period is greater than 0, the /f parameter is implied. | |
Comment on the reason for the restart or shutdown. | /c “comment” |
A maximum of 512 characters allowed. | |
Force running applications to close without forewarning users. | /f |
The /f parameter is implied when a value greater than 0 is specified for the /t parameter. | |
Provide the reason for the restart or shutdown. | /d [p|u]xx:yy |
p indicates that the restart or shutdown is planned. | |
u indicates that the reason is user-defined. | |
xx is the major reason number (positive integer less than 256). | |
yy is the minor reason number (positive integer less than 65536). |
There you have it!
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