So you’re ready to step away from the computer because you’re done working but the computer is not really done. It happens to me a lot when I leave my PC rendering videos or even uploading them.
However, I don’t want my PC to remain on until I come back to it the next morning or next day. I want it to shut down when it’s done working. That’s where a scheduled automatic shutdown comes in.
Before you can schedule an automatic shutdown, you need to approximate how much time your computer needs to finish what it’s doing. With that info, you can safely schedule an auto shutdown.
Go to the start menu in the bottom left of your Windows 10 home screen and search for ‘Task scheduler‘. Open it
In the task scheduler, let’s create a new task by clicking on ‘Create Basic Task‘. In the Window that pops up, give your task a name and maybe a description if you feel like you need to.
Click Next and choose the frequency with which you want your task to be executing. If it’s only this time, you can choose ‘One time‘ option.
Then click Next again and pick a time and date when you want your task to execute. Then click Net again and this will take you to ‘Start a Program‘ under ‘Action’.
This is the crucial part because it’s where you tell your PC exactly what to do. Type ‘shutdown’ in the Program/Script text box and add this to the Argument option: ‘ /s /f /t 0 ‘
Now click Next and then Finish. You have now created a task that will shutdown your PC at the time you specified.
How To Schedule a Shutdown In Windows 10 Using Command Line
You can also quickly schedule a shutdown using the command prompt. This is a one time commend and cannot be scheduled to execute on repeat. But it’s simple if you master the commsnd.
Open the command line by typing cmd in the start menu search. Then typen in thefollowing command:
shutdown -s -t XXXX
Replace XXXX with the time (in seconds) you want to your computer to stay on before it automatically shuts down. So if you want to schedule an automatic shut down after 3 hours, your command should be: shutdown -s -t 10800
