Imagine that you leave your computer on at night while a movie is downloading and you want it to turn off after a certain amount of time. Or that you have your PC working every day and you want it to turn off at a certain time. Normally, you would be aware of that time or the end of the download to turn off the computer. However, you can make your PC have this automated shutdown . There are several tools in Windows that help you schedule computer shutdown. We tell you how to access these options in a few steps in both Windows 7 and Windows 8 .
1. Schedule computer shutdown periodically
To schedule the shutdown of the computer at a certain time or from time to time there is a tool in Windows called "Task Scheduler" . To access it in Windows 7 we have to go to the "Control Panel" , then to the "Systems and Security" section and finally "Administrative Tasks" . Access in Windows 8 is similar but, in this case, the option to schedule tasks is found under the "Administrative Tools" menu (also within the "Control Panel").
The "Task Scheduler" opens a separate window. Within the options at the top, we click on "Action" and then on "Create task" . In the pop-up window that appears, the first thing to do is name your action , for example, “Off”. It is important that in this tab you correctly choose your Windows system in "Configure for" . Now look for the tab "Triggers" at the top and click on "New" . Among the options to start the task we will choose "According to a schedule" and, just below, we will indicate if it is a specific shutdown or it will be carried out periodically. The available options vary between "once", "daily", "weekly" or "monthly". In all cases we can choose the date on which this task will start and the exact time . We can even choose to have the computer turned off on certain days of the week or every other week. By the way, we must make sure that the option "Habitable" at the bottom is marked.
Once we have finished configuring our shutdown task, click on "OK" . A summary of our task will allow us to check that everything is correct.
Now we will go to the "Actions" tab , click on "New" and on "Start a program" (found within the "Action" drop-down). Next, we will write the following in the box under "Program" (quotes included): "C: \ Windows \ System32 \ shutdown.exe" . In this case, "C" is the name of the drive where Windows is installed.
Within the "Conditions" tab we can choose that this task is only carried out if the equipment is inactive for a certain time.
2. Shut down the computer after a certain time
Now, if you want to turn off your computer only once after a certain time has passed, there is an easier way. To do this you have to go to the "Run" menu . In Windows 7 , you will find it in the Start menu , while in Windows 8 you have to click with the right button of the mouse in the lower left corner of the screen and then "Run" . Inside the box of this tool we will write "shutdown -s -t 500" where the figure you write will be the time in seconds that will pass until the shutdown (in this case, 500 seconds).