How to use command-line to create a batch file that schedules daily machine restarts in windows

Question

0.00/5 (No votes)

See more:

, +

I manage a few windows computers on a network and need them to restart at 3:45 am daily, for patches and Windows updates to be installed. I am only able to use the windows command-line to run scripts. I have the below Windows command-line script. However, when it is deployed to machines, they do not restart, the command-line script does not seem to schedule the restart task. Any guidance on this?

Please see script:

schtasks /create /tn "auto restart computer" /tr "shutdown -r" /sc daily /st 03:45 /f

What I have tried:

I have tried the mentioned script.

schtasks /create /tn "auto restart computer" /tr "shutdown -r" /sc daily /st 03:45 /f

Posted 2-Jul-21 6:36am

Shemar Forsythe

Updated 2-Jul-21 9:19am

v3

Add a Solution

Comments

Shemar Forsythe 2-Jul-21 15:56pm

schtasks

Folder: \
TaskName Next Run Time Status
======================================== ====================== ===============
auto restart computer 7/3/2021 2:45:00 PM Ready

It works great, thank you so much for the assistance, Dave and Rick!

2 solutions

Add a Solution

Add your solution here

Treat my content as plain text, not as HTML

Preview 0

…

Existing Members

Sign in to your account

...or Join us

Download, Vote, Comment, Publish.

Your Email
Password
Forgot your password?

Your Email
This email is in use. Do you need your password?
Optional Password

I have read and agree to the Terms of Service and Privacy Policy
Please subscribe me to the CodeProject newsletters

When answering a question please:

Read the question carefully.
Understand that English isn't everyone's first language so be lenient of bad spelling and grammar.
If a question is poorly phrased then either ask for clarification, ignore it, or edit the question and fix the problem. Insults are not welcome.
Don't tell someone to read the manual. Chances are they have and don't get it. Provide an answer or move on to the next question.

Let's work to help developers, not make them feel stupid.

This content, along with any associated source code and files, is licensed under The Code Project Open License (CPOL)

Dave Kreskowiak · Accepted Answer · 2021-07-02T08:30:00

Solution 1

Your shutdown command should be "shutdown /r /t 0".

The /t is the amount of second to wait before shutting down the machine. Specifying it also enables the /f option, which forces all applications that are open to close without user interaction to close them.

Posted 2-Jul-21 8:30am

Dave Kreskowiak

Comments

Shemar Forsythe 2-Jul-21 15:00pm

Hi, Dave I used your suggested modifications.

schtasks /create /tn "auto restart computer" /tr "shutdown /r /t 0" /sc daily /st 13:55 /f

It still doesn't seem to work. Note: I am using the PDQ Deploy application to run this script on host machines. (not sure if that could be the cause of the issue)

RickZeeland · Accepted Answer · 2021-07-02T09:19:00

Solution 2

You probably need the full path, e.g.

C:\Windows\System32\shutdown.exe

Posted 2-Jul-21 9:19am

RickZeeland