How to Set a Timer for automatic shutdown

Setting up a timer for automatic shutdown is not difficult, in fact many people would already know about it, but if you don’t, read on.

There is no software to install and no tweaks to be made. An automatic shutdown is inbuilt into Windows and ready to be explored. Let’s check out how we can set a timer for automatic shutdown.

1. Right click on the desktop. Select New → Shortcut. A New Shortcut dialog box will appear.
2. In the location box, this is how you will enter the details:
      shutdown.exe is for calling the shutdown executable.
      –s is the command for shutdown.
      –f is for performing a forced shutdown. If an application stops responding when shutting down, this command will force shut it. Using this command is not compulsory, but recommended if you want your computer be shutdown in any case. And next,
      –t command is for specifying the time the shutdown will take place. After you put the –t command give a space and then enter the time in seconds. Let’s put the whole command in one line:
      shutdown.exe -s -f -t 21600

So in the above example, the computer will be shut down in 6 hours.

3. Click next and the shortcut will be created on the desktop. Give it a name and click it whenever you wish to initiate an automatic shutdown countdown. If you want to change the time, right click on the shortcut, select properties and change the time from the dialog that opens.


Tip: This command can also be initiated from the Run box or CMD. Open the run box and type the command and hit enter. See list of other useful run commands.

Tip 2: If you want to display a message that displays when the countdown is in progress, you can append a –c command with a message attached. Like this:
-c “Computer is shutting down” and the whole command looks like:
      shutdown.exe -s -f -t 21600 -c "Computer is shutting down"

Tip 3: If you want to restart the computer instead of shutting it down, replace the –s with –r. Similarly, if you’d like to logoff, replace –s with –l.

Once you have initieated the shoutdown countdown, there is no easy way to abort it. You cannot click on cross button (because its disabled), you cannot kill it from Task Manager. But there is still ways to do so. See how to abort the in process shutdown.

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