Shutdown a Computer remotely or through Terminal Services. . .

If you are like me (most likely you are if you’re reading this) you have a little Windows 7 Media Center running in a closet that is storing your Music/Pictures/TV Shows.

During administration days when the family is watching cable TV I use TS to administer the machine (being that the monitor is the TV and being used). I reboot the machine using an icon on my desktop that is simple and quick.

On your desktop right-click and choose "New-Shortcut" your location will be an old DOS command with parameters you determine. Copy and Paste this command:

Shutdown -r -t 120

Enter the above, then click next, provide a name and click the finish button. What this command states is "Shutdown" this computer - with restart "-r" - after 120 seconds"-t 120". You can right click then select properties and "Change Icon" to anything you want.

The "Shutdown" command has been around since the beginning of time (well at least in my mind). There are many things you can do with the Shutdown command, to enter the help menu to create your own shutdown methods use shutdown /?. I suggest you create a stop shutdown icon right next to this one just in case you ever click on it by accident. To stop a shutdown procedure simply create another shortcutwith the following command:

Shutdown -a

This will stop any current shutdown; I got really familiar with this command with the blaster worm.

* On a side note if you don’t want to go about creating icon's, or not even having to log into the machine and you wish to reboot a machine (or a hundred), open a command prompt type shutdown -r -m \\%machinename% -t 120 this will restart a remote computer (as long as you are an administrator of that machine). And No, you can’t reboot your co-workers machine without having administrative permissions (Trust me on this one).