This Auto Shutdown feature is among the most “under rated” features of Windows XP, probably because it’s not famous. There are applications dedicated to perform this function but, why increase the registry entries when you have a much better alternative?

1st Way:

Create a new shortcut, Right Click Menu >> New >> shortcuts

In the “Type the location of the shortcut” type, shutdown -s -t 3600

Note: 3600 are the amount of seconds before your computer shuts down. So , 60secs*60mins=3600secs

Click next,

Name the new shortcut anything you prefer,

And you are done with the shortcut.

To abort the shutdown timer

Create another shortcut,

In the “Type the location of the shortcut” type  shutdown -a

And you are done.

2nd Way:

Here is another way to Auto shutdown. For example you wish to shutdown at 01:22am. Type this in

Start Menu >> Run

Type>> at 01:22 shutdown -s

To abort,

start >> Run

Type >> shutdown -a

Note: The time format is 24hr,if you want to Auto Shutdown at 7:30pm, you should type

“at 19:30 shutdown -s” in the run command box, without the quotes.

3rd Way: (Creating a batch file)

Open Notepad,

Type in the following code as it is:

@echo off

title Scheduled Shutdown Batch Example at www.upcomingtechs.com

color A

echo Enter Time To Shutdown (example 19:30)

set /p stime=

cls

at %stime% “”shutdown -s -t 00″” >nul

echo Your PC Will Auto Shutdown At %stime%

echo Press Any Key To Exit

pause >nul

exit

Save it,

Rename the new file from *.txt to *.bat,

And you are done with the Auto Shutdown Batch file.

Note: Task Schedular Service must be running in the background in order for the batch method to work.

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