Remotely Shut Down Your PC

Windows XP has a feature that allows users remotely control their systems. To enable Remote Desktop, click Start, and then click Control Panel. If you’re using Classic View, click System. In Category View, click Performance And Maintenance, and then click System. Click the Remote tab and then click the check box in the Remote Desktop area of the dialog box. An information box appears and states that you must have the computer
password protected, and that the proper port must be open if you’re using Internet connection sharing or a personal firewall.

You can shutdown or restart your computer from a remote location by entering commands. First, click Start, and then click All Programs. Click Accessories, and then click Command Prompt. To restart your computer, type shutdown –r and press ENTER. To shutdown your computer, type shutdown –s and press ENTER. If you type shutdown and press ENTER, you will get other options.

A “Safer” Way To Shutdown Windows

Have you ever gone to shutdown your Windows machine (via Start > Shutdown) and once the process starts you remember there was one quick thing you needed to do? If so this is a hassle as you now have to turn the computer back on again to take care of it.

Instead of the usual procedure, instead try this batch file instead:

shutdown /s /t 60

When run, this will pop up a message box with a countdown to the system shutting down. This gives you time to make any last second adjustments, or you can cancel the shutdown process with another batch command:

shutdown /a

I keep 2 batch files on my desktop, “Shut down.bat” and “Cancel Shut down.bat” which run these commands and I don’t even bother with the standard Windows interface. Additionally, you can have the computer restart instead of shutdown by replacing “/s” with “/r” and you can adjust the countdown by changing 60 up to 600.

Fix Windows 98 Shutdown Problem

Some users of Windows 98 have had problems with their PCs hanging up at “Windows is Shutting Down…”, whereas it is supposed to move onto shut itself down. There are usually two causes for this. One is that there is a program running which Windows cannot shut down. Usually, it is a program which is running in your System Tray. In order to determine which one it is, just shut down manually one program each time you shut the PC down, making note of the one you exited. When Windows successfully shuts down, you can be pretty sure the system tray program you shut down just prior to thart is the culprit. The other possibility is that you need to update your copy of Windows. Use the Windows Update service and download the latest patches. The first edition of Windows 98 had an issue with its power management that kept it from shutting down properly. An update could fix it.