How to automatically shut down on idle on Windows 10
Your computer goes to sleep if it’s idle for a certain amount of time. You can also set the system to enter hibernate mode if you prefer it over sleep mode. That said, people do still shut down their systems and if you tend to forget, you can automatically shut it down if it’s been idle for too long. All you need is a scheduled task to handle it. Here’s how to set it up.
A word of caution
A System is idle when there is no user activity and no system processes are active. It does not check for unsaved work on your system. If you happen to have a file open with unsaved work, the shut down is not going to save it first. On that note, some apps can and do prevent system shut down if they’re open with unsaved work. If you have an app like that open on your system, it can interfere with the task.
Shut down on idle
Open the Task Scheduler and click Create Task in the column on the left.
In the Create Task window, enter a name for the taskĀ and make the following changes;
- Enable ‘Run with highest privileges’
- Set the Configure for dropdown to ‘Windows 10’
Move to the Triggers tab. Click New at the bottom to add a new trigger. Use the following settings for the trigger;
- Set Begin the task to ‘On a schedule’
- Select ‘Daily’ from the schedule options. Set the Start time to 12:00:00 AM. Leave the date as it is.
- Enable the task to recur every 1 day.
- Enable the ‘Synchronize across time zones’ option
Go to the Actions tab. Click the New button to add a new action and set the following action.
- Under Program/Script, enter Shutdown. There is no space between shut and down. It must be one word.
Go to the Conditions tab and make the following changes;
- Enable the ‘Start the task only if computer is idle for’ option
- In both the time fields, enter the same time. This time should be how long your computer should be idle before it is shut down. You only have preset options here but you can go as high as two hours.
Click Ok, and when your system is idle for more than the set time, it will be shut down. As for apps that may block the shut down, you can find free apps that can quit all running apps on your system or you can create a script that do the same thing. In both cases, you can run the script or the app as an action for the task.
Hi Fatima – just stopped by to thank you for your solution – this worked for me. I was trying to set this up a different way for a different but similar reason…let me exp[lain for others:
My goal was to schedule tasks that would both “Disable” my NIC upon going “Idle” and “Re-Enable” when the PC is unlocked by me; enabling worked fine…but “disabling” didn’t work and this is why…I originally set the trigger to Begin the task “on idle”…makes sense right? Wrong! Even though I set the “Conditions” the same as instructed here…it did not work. Very frustrating…until I saw your method of using the other trigger…”On a schedule”.
This was the correct solution for me and works great…I did this for supreme security and trust me, no one is getting on your PC without a NIC. For anyone else who wants to run a similar schedule…this is what I did:
1. Create two separate tasks as described above; name them ENABLE NIC & DISABLE NIC
2. For the DISABLE schedule – set the trigger as described above > then set the Actions to “Start a Program” > then in the Program/script box type: netsh > then in the “add arguments” box type: interface set interface “Ethernet 3” admin=disable and click OK. Note* where I typed “Ethernet 3″…replace this with whatever your current NIC is (C:\Windows\System32\ncpa.cpl)
3. Set the Conditions as described above as well…
4. For the “Enable” schedule…set the Trigger to Begin the task: “On workstation unlock”>for a specific or any user>then the same as the previous…then set the Actions to “Start a Program” > then in the Program/script box type: netsh > then in the “add arguments” box type: interface set interface “Ethernet 3” admin=disable and click OK. Note* where I typed “Ethernet 3″…replace this with whatever your current NIC is (C:\Windows\System32\ncpa.cpl)
5. There is no need for a condition unless you want one…and thats it
I tried this setting but it doesn’t work. And I finally get it…
1. On Edit trigger, Begin the task – select On idle
2. On Edit Action, Add arguments (optional) i put /s
I hope it will help…
If password is required search for > Using task scheduler with blank password