How to Shut Down Your Windows 10 Computer with a Timer
Apr. 19, 2021Windows 10 may not yet offer you a native one-click solution to schedule an automatic shutdown, but you can still enable that option without much technical know-how. We have already covered how you canschedule automatic shutdown on Windows 10using the Task Scheduler. And today, we will show you how to shut down your Windows 10 PC automatically with a timer.
Shut Down Your Windows 10 Computer With a Timer
In this article, we explain how you can use the Command Prompt, as well as third-party apps, to shut down your Windows 10 computer. This feature will come in handy if you want to keep your kid’s gaming in check or shut down your PC automatically when you doze off while watching aNetflix movie. Both the methods come with their own advantages, so you need to check out both for yourself to see which one fits your needs better. So without any further chit-chat, let’s get started.
The easiest way to schedule a shutdown in Windows 10 is with the use of Command Prompt. Here’s how the process works:
Note:For my demo, I chose 300 seconds, which will shut down my PC in 5 minutes. You can enter 600 if you want a 10-minute timer, 1800 if you want a half-hour timer, and so on.
Note:You can restart your PC instead of shutting down using “r” instead of “s” in the initial command. The command will look like this:shutdown -r -t [seconds]
You can also use a desktop shortcut to shut down your Windows 10 PC automatically using a timer. For that, you can use the same command as earlier, but wrap it up in a shortcut. It will let youactivate the shutdown timer with a simple double-click any timeand every time, instead of having to muck around with Command Prompt. Follow the steps below:
Note:You can cancel the scheduled shutdown using the “shutdown -a” command in the Command Prompt. Creating a shortcut to abort the timer can also come in handy.
You can also use a third-party utility to schedule shutdowns using a timer on Windows 10. The best app for the job is the free and open-source (FOSS) ‘Shutdown Timer Classic‘, available on bothGitHuband theWindows Store. You can even download a portable version, which means you don’t even have to install it on your system. The app has an intuitive GUI that ensures you do not need to do any math (translate the minutes or hours to seconds) to set the shutdown timer every time.
Shutdown Timer Classic allows you toselect between all the standard Windows shutdown options, including Restart, Hibernate, Sleep, Logout, and Lock. You can also specify whether to force close apps or not.
Once the countdown starts, you will get a prominent timer on the desktop. It will ensure that you know how long you have before your system shuts down, giving you enough time to save your work. You can cancel the shutdown process any time by just closing the timer window.
It’s not every day that you will need a timer to shut down your Windows 10 PC, but as you can see, you do have that option if need be. If you liked this neat little trick, check out moreWindows 10 tips and tricks, where you can learn about more such features. Also, check out how you can improve your multitasking abilities bysplitting the screen on Windows 10between different apps. Finally, learn how topassword protect files and folders in Windows 10, how tofind saved Wi-Fi passwords, and how todisable the lock screenin Windows 10.
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