Taking Control of System Properties, Startup, and Shutdown - 6.17 Scheduling a Reboot

Problem

You want reboot your PC automatically, on a schedule that you specify.

Solution

Using a graphical user interface

1. Create a shortcut to reboot your PC, as explained in Recipe 6.16. Use this syntax for creating it:
   
     shutdown –r –t 01 –c "Rebooting your PC"
   
2. From the Control Panel, open the Scheduled Tasks applet.
   
3. Double-click Add Scheduled Task.
   
4. Click Next.
   
5. In the screen that appears, click the Browse button, browse to C:\Windows\System32 and select shutdown.exe.
   
6. Type a name for the task (such as Reboot), select the frequency in which to run it, and click Next.
   
7. Enter the username and password of the user the task should run as and click Next.
   
8. If you want to go back and modify any of the settings for the task, check the box beside Open advanced properties and click Finish.

Discussion

Some people believe a periodic reboot is required to keep Windows snappy. Indeed, some updates for virus protection and security policies require a reboot to either take effect or poll network resources for updates and policy changes. So it’s a good idea to reboot Windows every once in a while, even if it doesn’t seem as if it’s needed.

See Also

Recipe 10.12 for scheduling a task and Recipe 6.16 for creating a reboot or shutdown shortcut

Next: 6.18 Speeding Up System Startup >>
 

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