SHUT DOWN YOUR SYSTEM WITH TSSHUTDN.EXE
In the previous tip, we said the Shutdown.exe command shuts down Windows but doesn't power down the system on some older computers. Instead, it displays the message, "It is now safe to turn off your computer."
If this happens to you, use the command-line utility Tsshutdn.exe, which was originally designed for shutting down Windows 2000 systems running Terminal Server. Tsshutdn.exe is included in Windows XP and can be run via the Scheduled Tasks tool to configure your system to shut itself down at a specified time.
Here's how:
1. Open Control Panel and double-click Scheduled Tasks.
2. Select Add Scheduled Task to launch the Scheduled Task Wizard.
3. Click Next.
4. Choose the Browse button to access the Windows\System32 folder.
5. Select Tsshutdn.exe and click Open.
6. Follow the wizard through the next two screens to give the task a name and choose a schedule.
7. Enter the name and password of your user account and click Next.
8. Select the Open Advanced Properties For This Task When I Click Finish check box, and then click Finish.
9. In the Task tab of Advanced Properties, add the following parameters to the end of the command line in the Run text box:
0 /delay:0 /powerdown
Be sure to include a space between the last character in the command name and the first character in the parameter list, such as C:\Windows\System32\Tsshutdn.exe 0 /delay:0 /powerdown. In this case, the 0 parameter indicates a zero second wait time after user notification and before all user sessions are terminated. The /delay:0 parameter
indicates a zero second delay before logging off all connected sessions, and the /powerdown parameter tells the system that it should prepare to power off.
10. Click OK.
11. Enter the name and password of your user account and click OK.
When the Tsshutdn utility runs, the command prompt window appears on the screen for a few seconds before the system powers down.