How to set the computer shutdown time. Automatically shutdown your computer in Windows XP

The computer is a magical object that gives us all the entertainment and knowledge in the world, but mercilessly devours our time in return. Who among us hasn’t had to sit late into the night in front of the monitor, unable to tear ourselves away from an interesting article or from fighting monsters? The result is chronic lack of sleep, troubles at work/school, and conflicts in the family. You can solve these problems by setting your computer to automatically turn off at a specified time. Moreover, it is not at all difficult to do this.

To turn off the computer at a specified time every day, we will use standard Windows tools. Let's open Task Scheduler (Control Panel\All Control Panel Items\Administrative Tools) and in the right panel select the link Create a simple task.

A task creation wizard window will appear, in which you need to enter a name, description, and then, on the Trigger tab, specify the frequency. By pressing a button Further go to the next tab and enter the task completion time. Again Further, and all that remains is to select the type of action to perform ( Run the program) and enter in the field shutdown.

In addition, you must add arguments to the appropriate field -s -t 60. This indicates that the computer will be turned off, not rebooted or put to sleep, and before that there will be a pause of 60 seconds. In general, the shutdown command accepts other arguments, but you can find out more about this in the Windows help system.

So, in just a few minutes we taught the computer to automatically turn off at a given time, thereby neutralizing the most dangerous killer of our free time. Instead, dedicate your free time to your loved ones, sports, and nature. After all, there is absolutely nothing left of summer!

Modern people spend a lot of time at the computer. It’s very convenient to take your laptop to bed, turn on a movie and fall asleep listening to it. In such cases, you need to know a way to program the computer to turn off using a timer. You can go to bed or go somewhere, and the PC will shut down itself.

How to turn off your computer after a certain time

This method of shutting down your PC is supported by all versions of Windows. You don't need to download additional software, you just need to set the system parameters and set the time. Shutting down the computer via the command line is carried out by the built-in shutdown command. The algorithm of actions is as follows:

Click the "Start" menu, select the "Accessories" tab and in Win10 - "Services".
Find the line "Command Prompt". Right-click on it and select run with administrative rights.
In the window that appears, first write “shutdown/?”, then press Enter. You will see a list of all possible ways to use this command. You can reboot, shutdown, hibernate.
To shut down the system, you will need the symbols “s” and “t”. The last argument should be the time after which the shutdown will occur in seconds. The formula should look like this: shutdown – s – t 7200. According to it, the shutdown will occur after 2 hours. A system message will appear with the time remaining until the job is completed, as in the photo below.
You can also launch the command line using the Win+r keys, enter “cmd” in the search bar, then press the enter key.
If you suddenly need to delete the shutdown timer, then write “shutdown – a” and Enter.

How to set a timer to turn off your computer

In addition to the command line, a task can be specified using a switch program or a task scheduler. The latter is a built-in functionality of the operating system. To configure it you will need to perform the following steps:

The functionality can be accessed through the “Start” button. In the list of programs, find “Task Scheduler”.
Create a new event that will be configured to turn off the PC after a set time. Click “Create a simple task.”
Come up with any name for this event, click “Next”.
In the window that opens, you need to set the frequency of the event. To set the timer to run only once, select Once. If this needs to be done every day – “Daily”.
Then the application will prompt you to set the trigger date and the exact time the PC was turned off.
At this stage, you need to tell the task scheduler what to do. In this case, select “Run program” correctly.
Enter the name of the command to execute – “shutdown”. Specify the parameters for it below: /s – turn off the PC, /t – timer in seconds.
Save all the data and the task will be created. Click "Done".

Those who do not want to deal with converting seconds to minutes can download ready-made applications from the Internet to shut down the system. They are freely available, you just need to download the exe file and install the program. Here are examples of common options for such applications:

Airytec Switch Off. A simple system utility that allows you to enter a shutdown time. The functionality is not rich, but it works correctly, the command to turn off the computer is very easy to configure.
Power Off. A more powerful version of this software has a large number of settings and functions. This advantage can also be called a disadvantage of the program. Inexperienced users may not immediately understand the software interface.

Video: Automatic shutdown of the computer at a specified time

You may have become familiar with several simple, and not so simple, programs for these purposes. The good thing about the programs is that they don’t require installation. I unpacked it, launched it, configured it once and everything works. Yesterday this is exactly how my computer turned off. Usually in the evening it seems like you need to look at this on the Internet and this. Things are not important and not urgent, but they take a lot of time. Because of this, you go to bed late, don’t get enough sleep in the morning, and the whole day is a mess. So, what would stop this works great. But you can do without programs. Built-in operating system tools. Read on or watch the video at the end of the article.

Task Scheduler is a great tool for automating computer shutdown

To be honest, I rarely use this utility. However, in this case, its use is an excellent solution to our problem. Let's launch the task scheduler. Open the main Start menu and select Control Panel. In Windows 8, select System and Security > Administrative Tools. In the list that appears, select Task Scheduler. In Windows 7, you can use search in the Start menu

The Task Scheduler window opens. Pay attention to the right side. Actions section. Select Create a simple task...

In the Name field that opens, you must name the task to be created. For example Shutdown. If you want, you can briefly specify a description of the task you are creating. Click the Next button >

We set the frequency of running the task of automatically shutting down the computer. I’ll put it on daily, Discipline is everything). Click the Next button >

Then you need to set the task execution time. I’ll set it up earlier so that I can get up on the right foot every day. Click Next >

We choose to run the program (that is, we don’t touch anything) and click Next >

In the Program or script field, write “shutdown”. In the Add arguments field: write “/s”. Click Next >

In the Completion section, click Finish

The task of automatically turning off the computer at a specified time has been created. Now, to edit it, you need to restart the Task Scheduler and select Task Scheduler Library on the left side. In the middle part at the top you will see a table in which you will find the task you created. If you need to delete a task, then in the right Actions column select Delete

To edit the selected task, select Properties (above the Delete function). Go to the Triggers tab, select an entry in the table and click Edit...

Now you can schedule automatic computer shutdown for any time without using third-party programs.

Shut down your computer automatically using the Command Prompt or Run utility

If you need to perform a one-time shutdown of the computer, then you can make this procedure even simpler. Using the Run utility. Open the Start menu in Windows 7 and select Run. You can find out how to make a Start button in Windows 8. In Windows 8, the Run utility can be found through Search, as in Windows 7

In the Run program window that opens, write the command we already know “shutdown /s /t 600”. Instead of 600, write the required time in seconds before the computer turns off. And click OK

In this case, you will immediately see a warning that your session will end after the time you selected. Click the Close button

If you need to cancel the automatic shutdown of the computer, then call the Run utility again, enter the command “shutdown /a” and click OK

You will see a “Log out cancelled” message in the notification area.

This way you can schedule your computer to turn off at a specific time. There is only one inconvenience - you need to calculate the number of minutes before turning off. If the time can be approximately calculated, then this is an excellent option for automatically shutting down the computer.

Conclusion

In this article you learned how to automatically shut down your computer using the built-in tools of the Windows operating system. These are the Task Scheduler and the built-in Run utility. Before writing this article, I thought of the Planner as something complicated and unnecessary. Now you can easily schedule any task including automatic computer shutdown. The same goes for the Run utility. Previously used to invoke the command line.

There is another simple way to automatically turn off your computer. This is the use of gadgets. How to do this in Windows 7, watch the video below

Has it ever happened that you have been assigned a long-term task to complete, but have no time to sit at the computer? It may be time to leave or go to bed, and someone needs to turn off the computer. Automatically shutting down your computer will help you.

In what cases is this necessary? Well, for example, if you:

enabled a full computer scan for viruses
started the video conversion process
download a large amount of information from the Internet
install a “heavy” program or game
copy a large amount of data, for example for backup
and many more options for every taste

Some programs have a checkbox, such as “Automatically shut down the computer after the process is completed” or “Auto Shutdown”, for example, in Nero after finishing recording a disc. But if the program does not provide such an option, then you will have to schedule automatic shutdown.

There's nothing complicated about it. You just need to set the time after which the computer should turn off, or turn on the timer. You need to calculate the time yourself. If the program writes the estimated execution time, then add 20-30% and get what you need. And if he doesn’t write, then estimate the time based on the speed of completing the task.

To schedule your computer to turn off on a schedule, you can use two simple methods:

Standard Windows XP/7/8/10 tools

Personally, I prefer to use special programs; they are simple and understandable. Now we will analyze the standard method.

Automatic shutdown of the computer using standard Windows tools

For this we need a standard “Task Scheduler”. So, let’s take a step-by-step look at how to configure the “Task Scheduler” to turn off the laptop after a certain time:

That's it, the task is created. To view it and change the time, you need to go to the task scheduler library and double-click on our task. Next, you need to go to the “Triggers” tab and click “Edit”. Everything is explained in detail in the figure.

At the specified time, all programs will be completed and the computer will turn off. Take care in advance to save all data in open programs.

You probably already noticed that we entered the program name “shutdown” and the arguments “–s -f”. In principle, you can simply enter “shutdown –s -f” and not enter anything else in the arguments field. Then the scheduler will warn that it itself has detected the arguments and ask permission to use them.

Delayed computer shutdown via command line

You can also turn off the computer without the task scheduler through the command line in the “Run” window. And more specifically:

Call the “Run” window via the “Start -> Run” menu or with the hot keys “Win + R”
Enter “shutdown –s –f – t 1000”, where “1000” is the number of seconds after which automatic shutdown will occur
Press “Enter”

Those. We write it the same way, only we change “1000” to the required number of seconds (there are 3600 seconds in one hour). After the specified time has expired, there will be one more minute left, which will be indicated by a special window.

If you change your mind about turning off the computer, simply enter the command “shutdown -a” in the “Run” window.

In the video you can familiarize yourself with programs for conveniently defining schedules or events for turning off your computer/laptop:

In various cases, it becomes possible to turn off the computer at a specified time. For example, in the evening before going to bed while watching a movie, turning off your computer automatically will help you not to worry about it if you fall asleep.

Setting up automatic computer shutdown is very simple, and everything can be done using standard Windows tools, using the Task Scheduler, or some other methods that we will discuss below.

“Task Scheduler” is located in the “Administration” section of the Control Panel. Launch it and create a simple task. Following the instructions in the task creation wizard, specify the name of the task and select the frequency of the task to run, for example, daily. Next, you should specify the time and day from which our task of turning off the computer will begin. In the “Action” section, select the action for the “Run program” task. In the next step, you will need to specify the program to be launched, or rather the script (command) to turn off the computer. In the "Program or Script" line, enter SHUTDOWN, and in the "Add arguments (optional)" line: -s –f. At the last stage, the wizard will offer to check all the parameters of the created task and if everything is correct, then finish the creation by clicking the “Finish” button. The images below show the steps in order.

You can also configure the computer to automatically shut down using the command line. This method is of course much simpler, although if you have ever worked with the command line. To do this, go to the menu (Start - All Programs - Accessories - Command Prompt) and write the command "shutdown /?" and press the Enter key.

After which the parameters of our utility will appear in the command line window. In this window we are interested in the main three parameters that are shown in the image.

What do we have and how can we use these commands?

To, for example, turn off the computer after 2 hours, we need to write the command like this (shutdown -s -t 7200), and then press the Enter key. To set the desired time, we need to convert hours and minutes to seconds. 7200 seconds equals 2 hours.

To cancel the specified shutdown of the computer, we need to enter the command “shutdown with the -a parameter”. That is, we enter “shutdown -a”.

This action can also be done through the “Run” command. The image shows where this item is located.

To cancel the task, write the same as on the command line “shutdown -a”

Now you know how to create an automatic computer shutdown. In conclusion, I would like to say that some programs have the ability to automatically turn off the computer upon completion of a certain action. These are antivirus scanners, torrent clients, defragmentation programs and others.