4 Ways to Schedule Shutdown in Windows 10 / 11

Maintaining your computer is equally important as buying. There are many simple ways to ensure the health of your system, especially the battery. It is always a good practice to shutdown your PC when you are not using it to save power. However, you could forget to turn off the PC when necessary or probably you need to leave the computer to complete some tasks in your absence. Perhaps you want to listen to songs before sleeping and want to schedule the automatic shutdown after 30 minutes or so. Fortunately, there are various ways to schedule shutdown in Windows 10 / 11 computer to turn off the machine at your own preferred time.

4 Ways to Schedule Shutdown in Windows PC

Make sure to save all your work before scheduling shutdown. Otherwise, system will force close all open apps when the shutdown action is triggered and you will lose the unsaved data. Though the screenshots in this article are shown from Windows 10, you can follow the same steps in Windows 11 also. You can use the Terminal app in Windows 11 to toggle between Command Prompt and PowerShell apps. In addition, the taskbar will have different appearance in the latest Windows 11 version.

1. Using Run Utility

• Press the “Win + R” keys on the keyboard or type “run” in search and select “Run” from the results to launch the utility.

• Enter the following command, “shutdown –s –t [time]” and click “OK” or press enter on your keyboard. The [time] represents the amount of time before the automatic shutdown in seconds. For instance, in place of [time], type 600 (equivalent to 10 minutes).

• This will automatically turn off the PC after 10 minutes.

2. Using Command Prompt (CMD)

• Type “Command” on the Windows search box, and on the right-side panel select “Run as administrator” or by right clicking on “Command Prompt” to open with administrative controls.

• User account control will prompt you asking whether to allow the program to make changes to your computer. Click “Yes”
• Type the same command as in the above option “shutdown –s –t 1800”. In this case 1800 means the PC will automatically shut down after 30 minutes.

• Press enter key on your keyboard to implement the command.

3. Using PowerShell Task Automation

• Search for “PowerShell” from the Windows search box or right-click on the Windows start button, then select “Window PowerShell (Admin)” from the options to open the utility.

• Click “Yes” on the resulting user control window.
• Similarly, type, “shutdown –s –t 3600”. This will schedule automatic shutdown after 1 hour (3600 seconds).

• Then press enter to complete the task scheduling.

Note: You can cancel the scheduled shutdown by running “shutdown –a” command in “Run”, “Command Prompt” or “PowerShell”.

4. Using Windows Task Scheduler

You can set an automatic shutdown using the Windows Task Scheduler tool. The feature allows you to schedule any task on your PC from startup, shutdown to opening other apps.

• Start the Task Scheduler by typing, “schedule” in the Windows search bar and select “Schedule tasks” from the result.

• In the Task Scheduler window, select “Create Basic Task” option under the “Action” panel located on the right side of the window.

• Type your preferred name for the task next to the “Name” heading and click “Next”. You can also type description for the task.

• Select the time trigger by checking one of the option and click “Next”.

• Set the start time and date and click “Next”.

• Under “Action” select the “Start a program” option and click “Next”.

• Browse the system files to select the script or program under the “Program/ Script” box.

• From the resulting window, scroll down and choose “shutdown” from the list, then click “Open”.

• This will take you back to the “Create Basic Task Wizard” and display the selected program on the “Program/ Script” box Click “Next”.

• Review the summary for the new task and click “Finish” to add the task to the Windows schedule.

You can modify the settings for the scheduled automatic shutdown. For instance you can trigger automatic shutdown whenever the computer is idle for a specific duration.

To configure more settings on the “Task Scheduler”, go to the “Task Scheduler Library” on the left-side panel.

• Look for the task you have created above “AutoShutdown”, right-click the task and select properties.

• From the properties window, open the “Conditions” tab and check the “Start the task only if the computer is idle for:” then specify the amount of idle time before your PC shuts down automatically.

• Click “Ok” to change the properties.
• You may also edit other properties by selecting the respective tabs on the properties window.

Note: In addition to the above explained methods, you can also create a desktop shortcut for the action and pin to taskbar. This helps to trigger the shutdown quickly without opening any other app.

Wrapping Up

With the above options, you can easily schedule shutdown in Windows at any future time and save yourself from the manual shutdown process. This alternatives are useful when you need to turn off your computer at night, when away from home or when you are occupied with other tasks. However, you need to be very careful to prevent turning off the PC in the middle of a sensitive operation or task.