Windows Tip: Start Your Day With A Fresh Computer, Step Four: Automate A Reboot
Table Of Contents
This is the Fourth Step in the Fresh Computer Series.
- Update Windows (Optional)
- Automate Hard Drive Cleaning
- Automate Hard Drive Defragmentation
- Automate A Reboot
- Automatically Open Your Browser
- Conclusion
Schedule The Task
- Navigate to: Control Panel -> Scheduled Tasks -> Add Scheduled Task
(Alternately, you run this from the Run dialog: control schedtasks)
- Hit Next in the dialog box that opens.
- In the Scheduled Task Wizard, put this in the address bar [1]:
%SystemRoot%\system32\shutdown.exe - Click Next. Set this to run Daily.
- Click Next. Enter the time and date for the task. Set the Start time for 6:00 AM and Perform the task Every Day.
- In the next screen, enter in the username and the password for your Windows user account [2].
- Tick the “Open advanced properties for this task when I click Finish.” checkbox and click the Finish button.
- In the advanced settings, look for the Run text field. We need to add a space, then a few switches to the end of the path [3]:
c:\windows\system32\shutdown.exe -r -f -t 60
- Click the Set password… button (right of the Run as text box with your user name) and add your Windows password [4]
Next, we can proceed to Fresh Computer Series Step Five: Automatically Open Your Browser: Firefox or Internet Explorer.
[1] I had you use the %systemroot% variable just in case you’ve installed Windows in a location other then the default 
The actual location for the Shutdown should be:
C:\WINDOWS\system32\shutdown.exe
[2] This user needs to be a System Administrator.
[3] The switches called do the following:
- -r Reboots the computer
- -f Forces all running application to close
- -t Sets a count down time, in seconds. 60 = 60 seconds
If you want to get really fancy, you can put in a comment for the shutdown!
C:\WINDOWS\system32\shutdown.exe -r -f -t 60 -c "The computer is shutting down! You can abort by running this command from the Run dialog: shutdown -a"
[4]Even though you put in your password in the sixth step, you have to type it again.
Start Slide Show with PicLens Lite
Megaman Loves These Related Posts:
That’s a good series you got going Saman. Like the way you spell out what you are going to do in this series of posts.
Thanks buddy!
I’ve been reading a great SEO book lately, and it’s super important to use keywords in your post titles - and use the heading class (h2) in the title! Plus, it allows RSS readers to know what their going to read!
really?.. h2 not h1?
Well, it really depends on your design - I have my site’s name a H1, and the post titles as H2. You should only use 1 H1, but can use many H2 tags.
Think about the order of importance of your page - also think of each “page” (post) and an individual page and not “just” a blog post, search engines do!
really?? only 1 h1.. wow. .i gots some investigating to do!
Start by reading The SEO Book - it really has a lot of great info! Ms. Danielle turned me onto it.
automatic reboot.. wow.. thats a little scary
Not at all! I also use it if the computer is doing something and I need to go to bed/work but don’t want the computer running while I’m gone. I allow enough time for the job to complete, then shutdown!
Something to execute on networks… Gotta try this out.
You should definitely check out: Windows Tip: Shutdown Your Computer With The Command Prompt
[...] Google X Windows Tip: Start Your Day With A Fresh Computer, Step Two: Automate Hard Drive Cleaning Windows Tip: Start Your Day With A Fresh Computer, Step Four: Automate A Reboot [...]
[...] Automate A Reboot [...]