How to Shut Down School Computers

Computers require electricity to run, so why waste power--and money--by letting them run overnight? In a classroom situation with multiple computers it makes especially good sense to turn all computers off at the end of the school day. Good news: There's no need to trust distractable children or overworked teachers to remember to shut down their workstations at the end of the day. Using the Windows Task Scheduler, you can set any Windows XP or Vista PC to shut down automatically at a specified time. You will need to execute these steps on each PC.

Instructions

Windows XP

1. Open the Windows Task Scheduler. Click on the Start menu, then "Control Panel." Open "Scheduled Tasks," then double-click on "Add Scheduled Task."

2. In the Task Scheduler, click on the "Browse" button, which will bring up an Explorer dialogue box. Navigate to "Windows," then "system32," then find "Shutdown.exe."

3. Create the task. Choose a descriptive name, like "End of Day Shutdown" and select the "Daily" option for running the task. Choose a time of day for the task.

4. Set parameters. This part is important--the system will not run Shutdown.exe without further instructions. Before clicking on "Finish" to save the task, click to check the box called "Open advanced properties for this task when I click Finish."

5. Press "Finish." The "Advanced properties" box will appear. Find the "Run" box. At the end of the "Run" entry, add a space plus the characters "-s" (hypen s), for "Start."

6. Click on the "Settings" tab. Place a checkmark in the box marked "Only start the task if the the computer has been idle for at least:" and specify an amount of time. Press "OK."

Windows Vista

1. Click on the Start menu and type "task" without the quotes. From the list that appears select the Task Scheduler.

2. In the right-hand pane, click "Create Task...."

3. In the "General" tab of the box that pops up, type in a name for the task.

4. In the "Triggers" tab, choose "New" to create a new trigger. Next to "Begin the task:" choose "On a schedule," then use the radio buttons and drop-down menus to determine the schedule. Confirm the Enabled box at the bottom of the dialogue box is checked. Press "OK."

5. In the "Actions" tab, click "New" to define an action. Select "Start a program" for the action, then click "Browse" and navigate to C:\Windows\system32\Shutdown.exe. Add switches to the path as you would for Windows XP (see Section 1). Press "OK."

6. Check the box in the "Conditions" tab marked "Start the task only if the computer is idle for:" and specify a reasonable amount of time, perhaps 10 minutes. Press "OK."

Tips & Warnings

• These instructions may require Administrator access.

• When setting the parameters for Shutdown.exe, you can replace the "-s" with "-l" for log off or "-r" for reboot or restart.

References

• Microsoft Knowledgebase: How To Schedule Tasks in Windows XP
• Schedule a task