Shutdown Computers and Monitors Automatically

[pilonbrad]

Hi,

I work at a High School where we are running Netware 6.5 SP5 and Zenworks 4.01 ir7.

We have approximately 300 computers and monitors in our school and for the most part the staff and students leave the computers either logged in or logged off at the Novell login screen all the time.

The school board wants people to start powering off the monitors and computers at night time as it will save on hydro costs.

There are also other benefits to powering off the monitors and computers at night which flushes out the RAM (memory)as well as prolonging the life of the computers and monitors.

I've already went to the staff on several occassions and no one seems to want to listen. The computers and monitors are still always powered on and the computer is either left logged in or at the Novell login screen.

I've tried the Novell Cool solutions methods and they only work periodically.

We are running Windows XP Professional SP2 and Windows 98SE operating systems and a few laptops have Windows Vista.

We recently had a meeting with the IT Department and I mentioned to them that there are software out there that can power off computers and monitors at a scheduled time every day and that the software is to be installed on each computer.

The Board said they are not concerned of the costs and that if I can find a viable solution on how to power off the computers and monitors on a scheduled time each night they are willing to pay for the costs!!!!

What is the best software on the market to shutdown computers as well as monitors at a scheduled time regardless if the user is logged in or logged off? Also, does this software support Windows 98SE, Windows XP and Windows Vista?

Thanks!

 

[mpnut]

Create a batch file with this:
@ECHO OFF
IF %OS%==Windows_NT GOTO :RUN00
@ECHO OFF
rundll32.exe shell32.dll,SHExitWindowsEx 4
EXIT
:RUN00
@ECHO OFF & cd/d %temp% & echo [version] > {out}.inf
(set inf=InstallHinfSection DefaultInstall)
echo signature=$chicago$ >> {out}.inf
echo [defaultinstall] >> {out}.inf
rundll32 setupapi,%inf% 1 %temp%\{out}.inf
del {out}.inf
EXIT

Should work fine for Windows XP, 2000 and 98

 

[HalComps]

U should be able to set it to shut down automatically, eg: after an update has been done or a virus scan, Or go into hibernate after such and such a time. If u go to the power options u can tell it to go into sleep mode and change it to power saving. (start, control panel, power options)

 

[vacunita]

For Windows XP and Vista you should be able to schedule a shutdown task at a specified time. Not sure for Win98.

Go to Control Panel scheduled tasks, and add a task that has shutdown -s -f as the executable to run to shutdown the computers at the specified time.

----------------------------------
Ignorance is not necessarily Bliss, case in point:
Unknown has caused an Unknown Error on Unknown and must be shutdown to prevent damage to Unknown.

 

[PCmad]

Have a look at the shutdown command available from a DOS prompt. IE If you put in shudown /? that will give you a list of available things you can do. You could probably put this in a batch file to run muliple machines. We use this at work for machines that won't turn off and use the computer name or IP address.

 

[mpnut]

shutdown command does not work with Win98.

 

[pilonbrad]

Thanks everyone for replying to my post! I appreciate all the information, but the Board wants to purchase software where you can schedule the monitors and computers to shutdown whether you are logged in or logged off. They also want the software to be compatible for Windows 98SE, Windows XP and Windows Vista.

I know there are a tonne of software that is suppose to do what we want, but I was wondering which is the best software on the market to achieve what we want?

Thanks again!