PC Auto Shutdown

CNET Editors' review

It's not especially difficult to use the Windows Task Scheduler to shut down your PC at a specific time, but it's not particularly convenient, either. And if you need more options or commands, your choice is limited. GoldSolution's PC Auto Shutdown answers many needs with flexible options for scheduling automatic shutdown, power-off, restart, hibernate, and other commands. Its wizard-based interface makes setting custom schemes a breeze. PC Auto Shutdown is shareware that is free to try for 15 days. The latest version fully supports Windows 8. We tried it in both 32-bit and 64-bit Windows 7.

When the program's installer closed, a compact window opened to its Timer tab, which displayed Add, Edit, and Delete buttons and a grid view sorted by Title, Status, Shutdown Event, Activation Time, and Frequency. Clicking Add produced the Timer Settings tool. We named and configured our timer from a range of features, including a weekly menu and various activation options, and clicked OK. We set our Shutdown time for 3 minutes and clicked Next.

The Wizard walked us through the remaining Tabs in turn, each clearly labeled by function: General, Hotkeys, Sound, Clean up, Password, and Log. The Clean up tab offered a menu of additional actions such as emptying the Recycle Bin and clearing browser data. The password tool is a valuable option when other users have access to your PC. After we'd set everything, we clicked OK, closed all our open programs, and waited. On schedule and without fuss, PC Auto Shutdown shut our system down. When we rebooted, everything ran normally. One thing we'd like to see is a visible countdown timer, perhaps with a flashing alert for when sound isn't an option.

Advanced users can program commands into PC Auto Shutdown, though we didn't try. For most users, PC Auto Shutdown offers more than enough extra capabilities, compared to Windows. It's quite inexpensive, so you can try it for a couple of weeks and see if it makes your life easier.

Editors' note: This is a review of the trial version of PC Auto Shutdown 5.3.

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All User Reviews

Results 1-9 of 9

  • 3.0 stars

    "handy software"

    November 22, 2012  |   By warezdownloader

    Version: PC Auto Shutdown 5.4

    Pros

    absolutely no problem in shutting down my computer

    Cons

    it should be freeware.not worth the money.i don't want to pay to just perform the cleanup before shut down.

    Summary

    take a look at these freeware
    autoshutdown:-offers simple timer+ scheduler+keyboard shortcuts
    http://download.cnet.com/Auto-Shutdown/3000-2084_4-10640426.html?tag=mncol;4
    pc down -timer+selected process cpu usage+ also total network usage of computer
    http://download.cnet.com/PC-Down/3000-2084_4-75810959.html?tag=mncol;3

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  • 5.0 stars

    "auto shutdown after download completed"

    November 14, 2012  |   By maxscripps52

    Version: PC Auto Shutdown 5.4

    Pros

    auto shutdown after download completed

    Cons

    auto shutdown after download completed

    Summary

    auto shutdown after download completed

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  • 1.0 stars

    "not so good!bad ui"

    November 13, 2012  |   By tanmayrastogi1

    Version: PC Auto Shutdown 5.3

    Pros

    none. if u count u would die.

    Cons

    everythin' from UI to options.just everythin.

    Summary

    found this better: www.sourceforge.net/projects/pcdown

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  • 3.0 stars

    "Cool software"

    April 14, 2011  |   By okanlele

    Version: PC Auto Shutdown 4.6

    Pros

    Meet my demand to work on W7 64. And, it does turn off my PC as it promises ^^.

    Cons

    Need to have option to Shutdown and specific date and time.

    Summary

    Good enough to try free. Not really worth a commercial one.

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  • 5.0 stars

    "useful tool"

    February 12, 2008  |   By GaConVietNam

    Version: PC Auto Shutdown 3.7

    Pros

    auto shutdown after download completed

    Cons

    not yet used so I don't have any comment

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  • 4.0 stars

    "Get idea - a quick way if you just need the basics is"

    October 23, 2007  |   By KeanJa

    Version: PC Auto Shutdown 3.66

    Pros

    Shutdown

    A windows command since at least XP and scriptable. So using Windows Notepad copy the following commands in to the following files.

    Shutoff.cmd

    @echo off

    shutdown -s

    Reboot.cmd

    @echo off

    shutdown -r

    Logoff.cmd

    @echo off

    shutdown -l as in larry

    Goto Run and type CMD and enter, then type shutdown ? and enter for more switch information. Just add the switches that work together for the functionality you want. Shutdown.Exe was built by MS as a remote shutdown tool. If you don't need all the bells and whistles its a neat fairly unknown utility of XP (circa 2004 - I built one, not to toot my own horn, in 1999 using VB - it still works and had similar switches just makes you wonder what could've been). If you need all the functionality of this shutdown utility by all means support your local programmer. If you are like me and like to hack, and believe me what I do programmatically is a hack (but it usually works) then try Shutdown.Exe. You can either save the Cmds to your desktop or put them organized and make shortcuts to them. A gotta on your desktop is a script to run Shutdown -f as in Frank this "Forces" your PC to poweroff - useful if you ever get locked out of your start menu and can't type or you just want out at any cost. Better then pulling the plug.

    Cons

    It tooks so long for someone to get around to doing such a product. MS Should have had something like this built into Windows - hey, maybe the author should try to sell it to them before they just steal its functionality and duplicate it.

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  • 4.0 stars

    "its good"

    October 6, 2007  |   By rockyiron69

    Version: PC Auto Shutdown 3.66

    Pros

    i like the auto management of my PC

    Cons

    the interface of the software

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  • 4.0 stars

    "works great"

    July 20, 2007  |   By dwilm

    Version: PC Auto Shutdown 3.65

    Pros

    easy to use

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  • 3.0 stars

    "Does the job and some, but has minor inconveniences"

    December 31, 2006  |   By Crunkus

    Version: PC Auto Shutdown 3.2

    Pros

    -Can shutdown based on weekday, daily, or specific day modes

    -Can clear recycle bin, ie temp files/history, recent documents, and more upon shutdown

    -Can run alert before shutdown (and play music)

    Cons

    - Running in background, takes 5 megs ram (not bad, I guess)

    - Ugly little taskbar icon (again, minor)

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PC Auto Shutdown