How to plan your Windows 10 shutdown for a specific date and time

Windows 10 has tons of great features that make it stand out from its predecessors and other operating systems in general, but one thing that people still struggle with is the shutdown process. It’s pretty simple, but when you’re going through the dozens of different settings and features to personalize your experience, the shutdown tab can easily get lost in the mix. Luckily, Windows 10 allows you to plan your shutdown for a specific date and time to make sure that you don’t forget about it or accidentally shut down your computer at an inconvenient time.

How I Created My Own Shutdown Scheduler in Windows 10

There are a few different ways that you can schedule a shutdown in Windows 10. You can use the Task Scheduler, create a batch file, or use the built-in power options. I opted to use the power options because it was the simplest method for me. In order to do this, open up Control Panel > System and Security > Power Options. Then click on Choose what the power buttons do at the bottom of the window. Next, click Change settings that are currently unavailable under Shutdown settings.

Scheduling Your Computer’s Restart

It’s important to restart your computer regularly to keep it running smoothly. But sometimes you need to schedule a restart for a specific date and time. Here’s how:

1. Go to Start > Settings > Update & Security > Windows Update.
2. Under Update settings, select Restart options.
3. Turn on Scheduled restart, and then select a day and time when you’d like your device to restart automatically.
4. Select Save changes. Now every time your computer reaches the selected date and time, it will restart.
5. To cancel or edit this scheduled restart, go back to the same area in Settings, turn off Scheduled restart (if necessary), and then select the Edit button. Choose a different day or time for the scheduled restart if desired.

 

Forcing Your Computer to Shutdown at a Specified Time

If you want to ensure that your computer shuts down at a specific time each day, you can use the Task Scheduler tool to create a task that will force the shutdown. Here’s how

•  Open Task Scheduler
•  Click Create Basic Task
•  Under General tab, give it a name (something like Shutdown Time)
•  Under Triggers tab, click New -> Daily
•  In the drop-down menu next to Start date, select Today or any other day you want your computer to shut down on. In the drop-down menu next to Days of week, select every day of the week or just one day of the week if that’s what you want. Click OK when done. The new task will now be listed in the right-hand pane of Task Scheduler window. Next, under Actions tab, click New -> Power Off

Shutting Down in Windows 7

1. In the bottom-left corner of your screen, click the Start button.
2. In the search bar, type schedule.
3. Click Schedule a task from the search results.
4. In the Task Scheduler window that appears, click Create Basic Task.
5. Give your task a name and description, then click Next.
6. Choose how often you want the task to run in days, weeks, months or years. Then choose what day(s) of the week or month it should run on by clicking Change Settings. Click Next when done. . . Enter in Shutdown as the program to be executed and enter shutdown -s -t 00 as the arguments. You can also specify -f to turn off running programs before shutting down, if desired. Click Finish.