Let your Windows PC to Be Shut Down Automatically at Night (If Idle)

If you work on your computer till late night then you might often forget to shut down your PC. At the morning you would discover that all the night your computer was on. But you can configure your PC to shut down automatically at a scheduled time when your computer becomes idle. Here is the simple workarounds to configure the scheduled task in Windows 7 and XP.

To attain this, you’ll have to configure a Task schedule job that commands the computer to shut down in your Windows system. Also don’t forget to setup the rules so that it should not be fired if you are up and start late to use your PC again.

Configure the task scheduler job to shut down computer in Windows 7

Open task scheduler by typing “task scheduler” in start menu search box.

At the Task Scheduler window create a new task by clicking on the “Create Task” link at the right-hand side.

Give the task a name and check the box for “Run with highest privileges” as the shut down process require administrative privilege.

Now click on the trigger tab then “New”. Now choose the “Daily” button, set the time to start the task running.

Now switch to the “Actions” tab, click on “New”; a “New Action” window will pop up. Under the“Program/script” section type “shutdown” (without quotes) and /S at the “Add arguments”section. Optionally, you can add the argument /F happening right after /S to force the shut down and kill all the running applications.

Next flip over the “Condition” tab and check the box to start the task only if computer is idle for: X minutes/hours, stop if the computer ceases to be idle, restart if the idle state resumes. Make sure that the task should start only if the computer is in AC power and stop if it switches to battery power.

Lastly, head over the “Setting” tab and check the boxes as the following screen shot.

Configure the task scheduler job to shut down computer in Windows XP

Type “control schedtasks” (without quotes) at the Run command box and hit Enter.

The Schedule task wizard starts. Click Next > Browse.

Locate the %SystemRoot%\System32 folder and open shutdown.exe. Under the task wizard, give a name of the task, choose the option how frequently you want to run the task (Daily is preferable) and click on “Next”.

In the upcoming window put the time, and then specify the performing interval and click “Next”.

Now specify the user name to perform this task under and type the corresponding password then click on “Next”.

In the next window check the box to open advanced properties for this task when clicking Finish. Click on Finish.

The task window appears. Under the “Task” tab add the parameter -s -t 00 at the end of shutdown.exe preceding by a blank space in the “Run” box.

Flip over the “Settings” tab and check the box to Only start the task if the computer has been idle for at least: x minutes. Click on “Apply” then “OK”.

You are done! Now if you go asleep without shutting down your PC, the task will be fired at the specific time. After living into the idle state through out your specified duration, it will command the PC to shut down.

Isn’t it very useful? Drop your comments at the comment section.