The Microsoft  Remote Shutdown Tool can also be used to shutdown or restart a local computer. Creating shortcuts to do this using the various options available enables different user defined alternative shutdown procedures to be defined. Also you can create a shortcut to STOP the shutdown process once started providing this is within the timeout period .

This is certainly not a new tip but a post today on one of my favorite blogs also showed how a GUI can be started, more of this at the bottom of this post. What I thought may be useful would be to give a overview of the available options and how to create the shortcuts to help less experienced readers.

This is a screenshot of three shortcuts I have created to shutdown, restart and stop the shutdown process.

The Microsoft Help & Support article KB317371 gives details of how to use the Remote Shutdown tool – shutdown.exe.

The main options/syntax are:

shutdown \\computername /l /a /r /t:xx "msg" /y /c

You can use the following switches with Shutdown.exe:

• \\computername: Use this switch to specify the remote computer to shut down. If you omit this parameter, the local computer name is used.

• /l (Note that this is a lowercase "L" character): Use this switch to shut down the local computer

• /a: Use this switch to quit a shutdown operation. You can do this only during the time-out period. If you use this switch, all other parameters are ignored.

• /r: Use this switch to restart the computer instead of fully shutting it down.

• /t:xx: Use this switch to specify the time (in seconds) after which the computer is shut down. The default is 20 seconds.

• "msg": Use this switch to specify a message during the shutdown process. The maximum number of characters that the message can contain is 127.

• /y: Use this switch to force a "yes" answer to all queries from the computer.

• /c: Use this switch quit all running programs. If you use this switch, Windows forces all programs that are running to quit. The option to save any data that may have changed is ignored. This can result in data loss in any programs for which data is not previously saved.

Examples are provided on the page link above

However the 4 simple examples I have used are:

1. shutdown.exe /l – to shutdown the local computer
2. shutdown.exe /l /r – to restart the local computer
3. shutdown.exe /l/a – to abort the shutdown process (during the timeout period which defaults to 20 seconds)
4. shutdown.exe /r /t:60 – to restart the computer with a timeout delay of 60 seconds

Creating a Desktop Shortcut

This is a fairly simple process.

First right click on an empty part of the desktop (i.e. NOT on a desktop icon)

(Click on any image to enlarge)

Click on New and then click on Shortcut in the sub menu.

This starts the New Shortcut Wizard:

Type the command into the box next to the browse button ( You don’t need to use Browse to set these up)

in this example I have typed shutdown.exe /r /t:60 which will restart the computer with a timeout delay of 60 seconds before the shutdown process starts.

Clicking the Next button displays:

the final screen where you can type in a name for the shortcut (You can always rename the shortcut later on the desktop if you wish)

The shortcut now appears on the desktop:

To change the icon to something more meaningful, right click on the icon then click on Properties in the context menu:

This displays the Properties window:

Click on the Change Icon button and the following message is displayed:

Now clicking on OK will display the default system icons file, you can if you wish browse to another file if you wish.

Select the icon you wish to use and click OK and voila

You can now use the desktop shortcuts to shutdown etc. by double clicking. You can also drag and drop them onto the Quick Launch Toolbar for added convenience.

Running from the Command Line

The process can also be run directly from the command line. This means you have to type the command complete with options but as the Run box has an autocomplete feature you need only do this once for commonly used commands.

Click on Start and then Run

In this case I have typed in the command line to run the GUI startup.exe /i which is the tip I picked up today via Confessions of a Freeware Junkie and which does not appear in the options in the Microsoft KB article.

Other Relevant Posts

Shutter – Portable Freeware – Shutdown Tool on Speed

Daphne – Modify, Control & Kill Processes with Your Mouse

Update to Daphne 1.33 – Modify, Control & Kill Processes with Your Mouse

TaskSwitchXP – So Much More Than a Task Changer

WatchDOG – Automatically Restart Closed or Crashed Applications and More

Why You Want to Use Portable Freeware Applications

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This entry was posted on Monday, April 21st, 2008 at 8:25 pm and is filed under Hints & Tips. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.