RemoteShutdown Documentation

This is an abridged version of the product documentation

Usage

You can run RemoteShutdown from either the command line or through the Windows User Interface (ie. normally).

Graphical User Interface (GUI)

The user interface is split into two tabs: Local and Remote.

Local Mode

Click on the "Local" tab of the main window for local mode.

In local mode you have similar choices to those offered by the standard shutdown menu on the Start menu:

Shutdown
Your machine will be shut down to the state where the operating systems displays the prompt "It is now safe to turn your computer off". However, on some systems the computer will switch itself off at this point.  If you wish to prevent this you should consult the documentation for your system as this feature can sometimes be disabled in the BIOS.

Shutdown & power-off
If your system has an APM (Advanced Power Management) BIOS, the system will switch itself off after the shutdown. 
On older systems that do not have an APM BIOS, this option can behave like the "Shutdown" option or the "Restart" option (depending on the system and operating system).

Restart
Your machine will be shutdown and rebooted.

Log off & log on as a different user
This will log off your current session and return you to the command prompt.

For all of the above settings, you can also specify whether or not this is a forced shutdown by checking the "Force" check box. You should use this option with care, as forcing applications to close will not give them a chance to save any unsaved data. They will simply be terminated unconditionally. However, this does guarantee that the shutdown will not be stopped by an unresponsive or uncooperative application.

You can also specify a delay on the shutdown.  This can be an absolute time (ie. an actual time, like 10:00:00 for 10:00am), or a relative time (like 00:20:00 for "20 minutes from now").  You can also set a message to remind yourself why you scheduled the computer to shut down which will be displayed during the delay period.

If you wish to change the default settings to be the same as the current settings, then click the "Store as defaults" button
(NB: this only changes the settings for local mode, it does not affect remote mode).

If you click on "Execute" and the "No delay or message" check box is ticked, then an immediate shutdown will occur. 
However, if you have specified a delay then the main window will be hidden and the following screen shown instead:

The "time before shutdown" will count down until it reaches zero, whereupon the shutdown will be performed.  Whilst the timer is counting down you can press:

• "Skip delay & do it now!" to skip the remainder of the delay and perform the shutdown immediately, or
• "Cancel it" to cancel the delayed shutdown and return to the main screen.

The explanatory text above "time before shutdown" is dependant on the type of shutdown you have selected and whether "force" is checked or not.

You can minimize the above dialog box.  When you do, it will display the time remaining on your task bar.

Remote Mode

Click on the "Remote" tab of the main window for remote mode.

If you are running Windows NT/2000/XP then remote mode is available. 
Windows 95/98 users cannot access this feature as it uses functionality that is only present in Windows NT/2000/XP.

As you can see, this mode is very similar to local mode, and you get the same options for setting a delay and a message.

As in local mode, you can specify whether or not this is a forced shutdown. You should use this option with care, as forcing applications to close will not give them a chance to save any unsaved data and they will simply be terminated unconditionally.
Please note that using "Force" does not give you extra access rights.  If you have insufficient privileges to do a remote shutdown without force then you will have insufficient privileges to do it with force.

You can specify a delay on the shutdown.  This can be an absolute time (ie. an actual time, like 10:00:00 for 10:00am), or a relative time (like 00:20:00 for "20 minutes from now").  You can optionally set a message which will be displayed during the delay period on the machines to be shutdown.

You can also specify that each workstation should be automatically restarted after it has been shut down by using the "reboot afterwards" checkbox.

If you wish to change the default settings to be the same as the current settings, then click the "Store as defaults" button
(NB: this only changes the settings for remote mode, it does not affect local mode).

Selecting workstations to shut down

Before you can perform a shutdown, you must specify one or more machine names.  

You will see a list of computer names (currently blank), above which is a small toolbar.

From left to right, these perform the following functions:

* Registered version only.

Adding Workstations

When you select the "add" icon (as described above), you will be presented with the following dialog.  Depending on the speed of your network, this may take a little time to come up the first time.

Use the "Server" drop list to browse the various domains on your network (if appropriate). Each time you select a domain server, the workstations that are part of that domain are determined. This can take a little time in some instances.

The computer list is a standard multi-select listbox, so you can use the Shift and Ctrl keys in conjunction with the mouse to select multiple entries.
You can resize or maximise the dialog box if you find that the comment column is too small, or you want to see more machines at once.

If you have a licence for the domain then you can select one or more workstations to be shut down.

If you are in demo mode and the domain is the domain that your machine is logged on to, then you can select up to 5 machines.

You must purchase a licence for each domain or worksgroup you wish to shut down workstations on.  Please see Licensing for more details.

Performing the shutdown

If you click on "Execute" and the "No delay or message" check box is ticked, then an immediate shutdown of the selected workstation(s) will occur. 
However, if you have specified a delay then a delayed shutdown will occur for all selected machines.  This uses the Windows NT / 2000 remote shutdown service to shut down the selected machines and uses a default dialog box that we can't change or improve.  

The dialog box shown below pops up on the user's machine. It displays the name of the user who initiated the shutdown (ie. your user name), displays the message you specified (maximum of 3 lines - we can't change this), and prompts the user to log off.  The dialog box beeps when it is created and remains on top of other windows in the system. The dialog box can be moved but not closed or minimized (we can't change this).  

A timer counts down the remaining time before the shutdown.  If the user logs off, the system shuts down immediately. Otherwise, the computer is shut down when the timer expires.

Whilst the timer is counting down on the user's machine, you can abort the shutdown by using the "Abort!" button of RemoteShutdown.  However, if the user has already logged off or their timer has expired, you will not be able to abort their shutdown.

The results of the shutdown or abort will appear next to the workstation names on the machine list.

NOTE:

Please note that in a great many instances, a machine that has been remotely shut down may not power itself off as expected.

This is due to circumstances entirely beyond our control.

We are aware of this issue under Windows NT, Windows 2000 and also in many installations of Windows XP.

Command line Interface

You can perform most of the actions offered by the user interface with the command line mode of operation.

Remote mode

Local mode

* Mutually exclusive. If you specify more the one of these then the rightmost will be taken.
These 4 options are retained for backward compatibility with the Restart application.

Return values

The following errorlevels are returned. Please see test.bat for an example of using these.

Examples

Licence Manager

Once you have bought your licences you can enter them using the Licence Manager  Choose the "registration" menu option on the menu bar, and select "Licences".

All current licences will be displayed.  If this is the first time entering a licence then there will obviously be no entries.

Click the "Add" button...

All the required fields will be in the email (or letter if you selected that distribution option) that we send to you when you purchase one or more registrations.  Please make sure you type them in exactly (including capital letters, spaces and punctuation).  Entering the licence is a one-off thing - you won't need to do it again, unless you uninstall and reinstall RemoteShutdown, or install it on another computer (please read the Licence Agreement first if you plan to do this). Please note that if your computer has multi-user support (eg. WindowsNT, 2K, XP, etc.), RemoteShutdown will only be registered for the user account that you are currently logged on to.

Repeat this process in order to add each licence that your have purchased. 

Demo mode

Until you purchase at least one server licence there are some restrictions and reduced capabilities. 

In demo mode, RemoteShutdown has the following restrictions:

• When you start RemoteShutdown a pop-up dialog will tell you that you're running in demo mode and how long you have been evaluating it for.
• You are limited to your login server and 5 workstations.
• You cannot save or load machine lists.

Naturally when you register, all these restrictions are removed.  However, you are still restricted to only shutting down workstations from those servers you have bought a licence for.