The computer has become a common fixture in our homes. Staying late at the computer has also become a daily routine for most users. After long hours in front of it, turning it off becomes a kind of mechanical operation, done automatically.
This situation means that the computer is often left turned on and left on all night. If you like to leave your computer turned off, but often forget to do so, there is a way to schedule that operation, making the system shutdown automatic. In this small guide, we are going to explain how you can create a new task in Windows, which will be responsible for turning off your computer at any time you want, when you are no longer using it.
- To start creating the task, access the 'Start Menu' and type “Task Scheduler” in the run bar. Locate it in the results and click to launch it. Then enter the 'Action' menu and choose 'Create Task'.
- A new window will open for you to configure the task. In the first tab, 'General', you must define a name for the activity and you can add a description if you wish. Select the 'Run with maximum privileges' option.
- Go to the 'Triggers' tab and click on the 'New…' button. Now you need to configure the schedule. You must define the frequency (once, daily, weekly, or monthly). Then specify the start date and time when the task should take place. Note that if you use the daily option, there is a field to define the repetition interval – just fill in the desired number in the available field (ex: Repeat every 1 day). Finally, click 'OK.
- After completing the previous step, go to the 'Actions' tab and click on 'New'. In the 'Program/script' field, type “shutdown” (without the quotes) and /S in the 'Add arguments' field. If you want the computer to close all open applications, you can type /S /F in 'Add Arguments'. Click 'OK' to finish.
- Now move on to the 'Conditions' tab. This part of the process is important, as here you can specify when the computer should shut down. This makes it possible to avoid, for example, that it turns off on a day when the reader lost track of the time but was using it. Start by checking the box 'Start task only if computer is idle during'.
- Once this is done, choose a minimum downtime, in the checkbox next to the mentioned alternative, so that the scheduling advances. Then, under 'Wait inactivity for', you can define a value that should be waited (after detecting that the
computer is stopped) before carrying out the task. Additionally, you can choose to stop the activity if the machine becomes active again, checking the option 'Stop if the
computer stops being idle'. There is also a way to return to the execution phase of the scheduled task when a new inactivity phase is detected, by selecting 'Restart if the inactive state is resumed'. - Finally, enter the 'Settings' tab. Here you can set a default time for the task to run again in case of failure. To do so, check the option 'If the task fails, restart every' and set a value in the checkbox on the side. Set the maximum number of attempts write the value in the field next to 'Restart attempt until'.
Optionally, you can also choose a maximum amount of time for retries to occur. To do so, select 'Stop the task if it runs more than” and choose the value in the box beside it. Click 'OK' to save your changes. Notice that the new configuration now appears in the Task Scheduler interface. From now on, the computer will be turned off whenever it is inactive at the configured time and situations.
