Any user can turn off a computer. But, in some situations, it becomes necessary to turn off the computer not immediately, but after some time. In other words, set a timer to turn off the computer. Not everyone knows what to do in such a situation. In this short article we will look at three ways to set a timer to turn off your computer.

Method number 1. Shutdown command.

You can change this command to suit your needs. For example, you can increase the delay time before turning off. To do this, instead of 60, enter another number. The main thing to remember is that the delay is set in seconds.

You can also, instead of shutting it down, send your computer to reboot or hibernate. To do this, replace the /s parameter with /r() or /h (hibernate). If necessary, you can enable forced termination of all running programs without warning the user. To do this, you need to add the /f parameter to the command. If you want to know all the available parameters, run the Shutdown command without any parameters.

Method number 2. Task scheduler.

You can also set a timer to turn off your computer using the task scheduler. To do this, launch the “Task Scheduler” using the taskschd.msc command. In the scheduler itself, you need to click on the “Create a simple task” button.

After this, the Create a Simple Task Wizard will launch. It can be used to schedule the Shutdown command to run at a specific time. To start creating a task, enter a name and click on the “Next” button.

After this, you need to choose the frequency of completing the task. In most cases, a one-time execution will do.

In the next step, you need to select “Run a program” (we will launch the Shutdown program).

That's it, the task is almost created. All that remains is to click on the “Finish” button.

After this, the task you created will appear in the “Task Library”.

Now, at the selected time, the “Task Scheduler” will execute the Shutdown command and the computer will turn off.

Method number 2. Programs to turn off the computer.

You can also set a timer to turn off your computer using third-party programs. For example, you can use (screenshot below). This program is free and has a lot of functions. With its help, you can configure the computer to turn off by timer, by countdown, or in case of computer inactivity.

Another interesting program for turning off the computer using a timer is (screenshot below).

The Switch Off program adds a special icon to the taskbar with which you can quickly set the computer shutdown timer. Switch Off also has a number of unique features. For example, with this program you can turn off your computer over the Internet.

1. Using the Run menu

To activate the shutdown timer, the only command you need is shutdown -s -t xxx . Instead of three X's, you need to enter the time in seconds after which the shutdown will occur. For example, if you enter shutdown -s -t 3600 , the system will shut down after one hour.

Press the Win + R keys (open), enter the command in the field and click Enter or OK.

If you want to cancel the shutdown, press Win + R again, enter shutdown -a and click OK.

2. Using the “Task Scheduler”

This way you will not start the timer in the literal sense: the computer will not turn off after a certain period of time, but exactly at the specified time.

First, open the Task Scheduler menu. To do this, press Win + R, enter the command taskschd.msc in the field and press Enter.

Now schedule the shutdown. Click “Create a simple task” in the right panel, and then specify its parameters in the wizard window: any name, repetition mode, execution date and time. Select “Run program” as the task action. In the Program or Script field, enter shutdown and then enter the -s argument on the adjacent line. After this, click “Done”.

If you want to cancel the shutdown, open Task Scheduler again. Then click “Task Scheduler Library” in the left panel, select the created task in the list that appears and click “Disable” in the right panel.

3. Using third-party software

If you don’t want to remember commands and delve into , use third-party programs. For example, the PC Sleep utility can turn off the computer using a timer or exactly at a specified time. It's free and very simple.

To activate the shutdown timer in PC Sleep, launch the program and select Shutdown from the Function Select menu. Then check Shutdown in and specify the time after which the system should shut down. After that, click Start to start the countdown.

To cancel the shutdown, just expand the program window and click on the Stop button.

PC Sleep can also be configured to turn off your computer at a specific time. To do this, instead of Shutdown in, select Shutdown at. In addition, you can schedule not only shutdown, but also other actions: reboot, hibernate, hibernate, and log off. These options are also available in the Function Select list.

If you want the computer to fall asleep after the end of the movies, you can also read about the program.

How to set your macOS computer's shutdown timer

1. Using “Terminal”

The command sudo shutdown -h +xx shuts down the Mac after a specified amount of time. Instead of X's, enter the number of minutes. For example, typing sudo shutdown -h +60 will cause the shutdown timer to expire after one hour.

To enter a command, open the Terminal application, manually type or copy the characters above, and press Enter. If prompted, enter administrator. After this, the countdown to shutdown starts. To cancel it, open Terminal again, type sudo killall shutdown and press Enter.

2. Using the "Energy Saving" menu

In this section, you can schedule the computer to turn off at a specified time. Pull down the Apple menu and click System Preferences → Energy Saver → Schedule. In the window that opens, select the “Turn off” option, specify the day of the week and time.

When the time is up, a shutdown warning will appear on the screen. If you do not use the cancel button, the system will turn off after 10 minutes.

Turning off a computer using a timer is a very typical task that many users face. However, not everyone knows how this problem can be solved. In this article we will talk about how to turn off your computer using a timer in Windows 7, 8, 10 and XP. To solve this problem we will use the command line, task scheduler and third-party programs.

Turn off the computer using a timer using the command line

The easiest and fastest way to shut down your computer using a timer is to use the “shutdown” command, which works equally well in Windows 7 and other versions of Windows. This command can be executed from the command line or using the Run menu.

The shutdown command has many parameters that allow you to fine-tune the process of shutting down your computer. Below we will look at the most basic of them:

• /s – Shut down the computer;
• /h – Switch to hibernation mode;
• /f – Forces termination of all open programs without warning the user;
• /t – Set the timer in seconds.

In order to shut down the computer using a timer using the shutdown command, we need to use the /s (shutdown the computer) and /t (set the timer) parameters. Thus, the command to turn off the computer will look like this:

• Shutdown /s /t 60

After executing such a command through the Command Prompt or Run menu, the computer will shut down after 60 seconds.

If you want to reboot the computer using a timer, then instead of the /s parameter, you need to use the /r parameter. The same thing with hibernation mode. We use /h instead of /s and the computer, instead of turning on, will go into hibernation mode. You can also add the /f option. In this case, shutdown (reboot, hibernation) will begin immediately, and all running programs will be closed without warning the user.

The disadvantage of this method of shutting down the computer is that the shutdown task is created only for one time. If you need to turn off your computer on a timer daily, then you need to use Task Scheduler or third-party programs.

We use the scheduler to turn off the computer using a timer

Windows 7, 8, 10 and XP operating systems have a very powerful tool available called Task Scheduler. You can use it to turn off your computer using a timer. To open Task Scheduler, launch the Start menu (or Start screen tiles if you're using Windows 8) and search for "Task Scheduler." You can also launch the Task Scheduler using the “taskschd.msc” command.

After starting the task scheduler, click on the “Create a simple task” button. This button is on the right side of the window.

Then we are asked to indicate when we want to complete this task. You can select "Once" if you want to timer off your computer only once. If you need to turn off your computer using a timer daily or in another mode, then you can choose another option that is more suitable for you.

At the next stage, you need to specify the triggering of this task.

After this, we need to enter the shutdown command as well as startup parameters. How the launch parameters of this command are used has already been discussed above.

That's it, the task to turn off the computer using a timer has been created. You can view it in the Assignment Library.

From the context menu (right mouse click) you can manage the created task.

You can run, complete, disable, delete, or open the job properties.

Programs for turning off the computer using a timer

If the described methods for turning off a computer using a timer do not suit you or seem too complicated, then you can turn off the computer using programs from third-party developers. Below we will look at several such programs.

A powerful free program to turn off your computer using a timer. Using the PowerOff program you can configure almost any little thing. On the other hand, due to the huge number of functions, the interface of this program is too overloaded. Which can be very difficult to figure out.

A small program to turn off your computer. The Switch Off program is equipped with a small number of functions and has an easy and intuitive interface. The program is equipped with a built-in web server that allows you to turn off your computer via a local network or via the Internet.

The developer of this program for turning off the computer using a timer claims to support only Windows 7, 8 and XP. Although it should work on Windows 10 without problems.

It may seem strange why you need to turn off your laptop/computer on a schedule if you can do it yourself, but there are actually many reasons. Why and how to enable the shutdown timer on Windows 7? For example, some task is being performed on the device, and you urgently need to leave, or other users are working on your PC via a remote connection, and they will complete it closer to the night or in the morning, and there is no need for your presence. Everyone will find a situation in which they need to enable the Windows 7 shutdown timer. So, there are several ways to enable the Windows 7 shutdown timer, we will describe each below with detailed instructions.

Enable shutdown timer using CMD

From the articles on our portal, you are well familiar with CMD - a command line that allows you to manage services and software components from DOS mode with elevated privileges. There is no point in talking about the advantages, since everyone has at least once encountered working in cmd. So let's get started.

There are several ways to launch cmd:

Start panel → Run.

Or
Using hotkeys + [R].


The next step is to move directly to how to enable and configure the timer:

Enter without quotes and maintaining the syntax “shutdown –s –t 300” → “OK”.

Where “–s” means to save all applications with the correct shutdown of the machine, “-t 300” indicates the amount of time in seconds before the OS turns on the shutdown timer - it turns off after 5 minutes. You can specify absolutely any period, but in seconds. In addition, you can specify the option to force shutdown without saving and dialogs from the system “-f”.

As a result, the system will start the timer and return the message “Windows will shut down in 5 minutes.” - this is an example based on the entered command; moreover, the date and exact time of shutdown will be indicated.

It is not difficult to enable the timer using the described means, but if there is no longer a need, the following parameter will help you disable it:

Enter the following into cmd without quotes and maintaining the syntax: “shutdown -a” → “OK” /, where the parameter “-a” turns off the timer.

A message appears in the system tray indicating that logging out is disabled.

Enable OS shutdown timer: quick way

You can enable the timer in Windows 7 without constantly using cmd; you can use access to commands from the system’s graphical shell, for this:

The image at the top of the properties window should change → “Apply” → “OK”.

Time management assistant

There is another way to enable scheduled shutdown of the OS using the built-in tools of Windows 7, which is more suitable for less experienced users. Below are detailed instructions on how to enable the Windows 7 computer shutdown timer using the task scheduler.

• In the list we find “Task Scheduler”.

Good day to you, my dear friends and readers. Very often before going to bed, my beloved wife and I watch a movie or TV series. So somehow sleep comes faster). Usually I always turn off the computer when I'm getting sleepy. But sometimes it turns out that I fall asleep while listening to the movie.

And so it continues to work for a long time, either until I wake up (I have a fairly light sleeper and I cannot sleep all night listening to the sounds of the TV or computer), or until the computer goes into sleep mode. In general, I don't like my computer running all night, even in sleep mode. I need to know it's off.

Yes Yes. And again our magic line will help us. I just can't live without her. I use it whenever possible.

So how? It's clear? In my opinion it couldn't be simpler. But that is not all. Let's look at another way.

Using the task scheduler

The Windows system has a special application - "Task Manager", thanks to which you can assign different tasks to your computer for a specific time. Of course, the computer will not conquer the world for you, but it will help in some other ways.

Using third party programs

Among other things, for those who do not like all sorts of writing and other things, the easiest way is to use a program with a convenient and intuitive interface. For these purposes, I recommend that you use the program WinMend Autoshutdown. It is very simple and you will not have any difficulty using it.

In addition, it can turn off the computer, log off the system, enter sleep mode at a specified time or after a certain time. You decide.

But personally, I prefer not to use third-party programs if it is possible to use the built-in Windows tools.

Do you use these methods yourself? Or are you planning to use it? If yes, which one do you like better? In general, feel free to leave comments or ask questions on this topic.

By the way, even such an unnoticeable thing as setting a timer helps you work more productively at the computer. But still this is not enough. I would advise you to study an excellent video course on productive work on a PC, thanks to which you will learn to optimize all your work, reduce time and increase productivity. The course is actually very powerful and interesting. I recommend you to watch it.

Well, I’m finishing my lesson for today and I really, really hope that you liked my article. Don't forget to subscribe to my blog. There will be a lot of interesting things. I look forward to seeing you in my next articles. Bye bye!

Best regards, Dmitry Kostin