Is there a way to automatically start up Windows on specific hours of days and later on, to shut it down automatically again? I want to allow remote access to a PC on specific time slices of the day and at the same time, outside these time slices to have computer powered off in order to save power.

Is there a way to automatically start up Windows on specific hours of days and later on, to shut it down automatically again? I want to allow remote access to a PC on specific time slices of the day and at the same time, outside these time slices to have computer powered off in order to save power. The most basic way of selecting a bootup time / date would be set in the BIOS, if your BIOS supports this feature. If your bios does not support this feature... it is probably not worth the hassle (enabling wake on LAN, setting up another machine to be on 24/7 and send a wake up packet at a certain time). As for shutting down... you can tell windows to shut down via a scheduled task. You would want to schedule shutdown.exe , which should reside in your system32 folder.

Every machine I have owned for the last 20d years all have the ability to wake on an alarm clock in the BIOS. Now shut down will have to be done with a program as Windows does not have a feature to shutdown itself. I could provide such a solution. Vote if answered or helpful, I am running for Office (joke)! Developer | Windows IT | Chess | Economics | Hardcore Games | Vegan | PC Reviews

Every machine I have owned for the last 20d years all have the ability to wake on an alarm clock in the BIOS. Now shut down will have to be done with a program as Windows does not have a feature to shutdown itself. I could provide such a solution. Vote if answered or helpful, I am running for Office (joke)! Developer | Windows IT | Chess | Economics | Hardcore Games | Vegan | PC Reviews You are incorrect. You can have shutdown.exe (or a batch file that calls it) run as a scheduled task.

shutdown will sometime get caughtup on some programs with save open Vote if answered or helpful, I am running for Office (joke)! Developer | Windows IT | Chess | Economics | Hardcore Games | Vegan | PC Reviews

shutdown will sometime get caughtup on some programs with save open Vote if answered or helpful, I am running for Office (joke)! Developer | Windows IT | Chess | Economics | Hardcore Games | Vegan | PC Reviews That is what the /f parameter is for. (/f is implied if using the /t parameter, by the way)

years ago I had a program that I used to scan processes for common applications, this way I could send messages to them to save. shutdown -f works fine if you are using a program that limits the use of the machine etc for say 60 minutes but I have noticed its sometimes beaten. so that I do is scan to close browsers etc before the shutdown is run this way it seems to be stable I wrote software for a client who needed to limit use of a network of machines Vote if answered or helpful, I am running for Office (joke)! Developer | Windows IT | Chess | Economics | Hardcore Games | Vegan | PC Reviews

Only once have I had a windows machine hang while using shutdown.exe It was a Pre SP2 Windows XP machine. I've never seen the shutdown process hang on an XP SP3, Server 2003, or server 2008 machine. I have also not seen it hang on a Windows 7 machine (though I've only been trying out 7 for the past few weeks now). I've run windows server in both physical and virtual environments.... never had a problem.

Every machine I have owned for the last 20d years all have the ability to wake on an alarm clock in the BIOS. Now shut down will have to be done with a program as Windows does not have a feature to shutdown itself. I could provide such a solution. Vote if answered or helpful, I am running for Office (joke)! Developer | Windows IT | Chess | Economics | Hardcore Games | Vegan | PC Reviews

shutdown will sometime get caughtup on some programs with save open Vote if answered or helpful, I am running for Office (joke)! Developer | Windows IT | Chess | Economics | Hardcore Games | Vegan | PC Reviews

years ago I had a program that I used to scan processes for common applications, this way I could send messages to them to save. shutdown -f works fine if you are using a program that limits the use of the machine etc for say 60 minutes but I have noticed its sometimes beaten. so that I do is scan to close browsers etc before the shutdown is run this way it seems to be stable I wrote software for a client who needed to limit use of a network of machines Vote if answered or helpful, I am running for Office (joke)! Developer | Windows IT | Chess | Economics | Hardcore Games | Vegan | PC Reviews

I use virtualization extensively and that is why I went the extra mile as applications can sometimes be a nuisance.Vote if answered or helpful, I am running for Office (joke)! Developer | Windows IT | Chess | Economics | Hardcore Games | Vegan | PC Reviews

I use virtualization extensively and that is why I went the extra mile as applications can sometimes be a nuisance.Vote if answered or helpful, I am running for Office (joke)! Developer | Windows IT | Chess | Economics | Hardcore Games | Vegan | PC Reviews

A virtual environment will only make it easier to shut down a guest OS. The hypervisor can initiate a shutdown via guest "tools" or "OS Additions"... and if that does fail, it can trigger a soft off, and eventually a hard off (akin to pulling the plug out of the back). I have yet to see a situation where you need a third party program to shut down windows.... and every third party program I've seen has eventually called the shutdown process in one way or another.

If you are using a hypervisor, then you can graunch the situation. It all depends on the OS in use, whether its virtual and so on. Elected! Your votes and support have got me my 2010 MVP! Developer | Windows IT | Chess | Economics | Hardcore Games | Vegan | PC Reviews

If you are using a hypervisor, then you can graunch the situation. It all depends on the OS in use, whether its virtual and so on. Elected! Your votes and support have got me my 2010 MVP! Developer | Windows IT | Chess | Economics | Hardcore Games | Vegan | PC Reviews

True... I can be dense at times but I fail to see how your program is better than the built in Windows shutdown utility.