Scheduling Shutdown

[wissamyoussif]

Hi all,
I'm too shy to ask my sisters to stop playing, quit listening to music and turn off my machine when I go to sleep; so I've tried this: I typed shutdown.exe -s -t 03 -f on notepad, saved it as a .cmd file (and changed later to .bat), and tried to schedule it to run at 10:30 pm every night. However, when I try to "open advanced properties for this task" I get a "new task has been created, but may not run because the account information could not be sent" then when I'm done with the advanced (shedule) tab, click ok, I get an " error has occured while attempting to set task account information ... you do not have permission to perform the requested operation".
What's wrong with that task anyway, knowing that this all works well with the (defrag.exe) task that I did the same procedure to schedule and with no problem?
Thanks

[GuruGary]

Look at the scheduled tasks log file at C:\Windows\Schedlgu.txt which should give you more information.

Did you enter your username and password properly for the scheduled task?  Is the specified account an administrator account?

[wissamyoussif]

Hi GuruGary and all,
thanks for your interest and prompt response. By the time I posted my first lines, everything was checked and rechecked over and over so it's not probable that there's any account problem (the machine is mine and I don't have any password on it); and Schedlgu.txt yielded

"sd.job" (shutdown.exe) 26/02/2008 10:30:00 م ** ERROR **
   The attempt to retrieve account information for the specified task failed; therefore, the task did not run. Either an error occurred, or no account information existed for the task.
   The specific error is:
   0x8004130f: No account information could be found in the Task Scheduler security database for the task indicated.

I think I'm the first one who thought to schedule Shutdown (please tell me I'm wrong) so can I still do it?

[blastman]

I think I'm the first one who thought to schedule Shutdown (please tell me I'm wrong) so can I still do it?

you not the first.

I use a bacth file to restart my servers for windows updates out of office hours of course (and before the backups run!!!)

below is said bacth file (nice and easy..)

Code: [Select]

shutdown /r /t 5 /c "Apologies for any inconvenience." /f /d p:4:1
you'll want to remove the /r as that will restart said machine.

I've added it as a scheduled task and when ever i want to run it i just schedule it for that night. easy.

[wissamyoussif]

Hi blastman and all, no not even that didn't work with me, it still cannot be added to the Schedule Task. Would anyone suggest me moving to the Windows Forum? 'cause no one here thinks it's a command error. Thanks

[squall_01]

I would try a program called Switch Off.  You can tell it to shut down at what ever time and close any programs that are open.  You can also set up a message in it say that it going to shut down.  I find it alot easier to use.

[Sidewinder]

when I try to "open advanced properties

I'm uncertain what these advanced properties you speak of are, but sometimes brute force works too.

Code: [Select]

at 10:30PM /every:m,t,w,th,f,sa,su "shutdown.exe -s -t 03 -f"

Enter the above command from the command prompt. The job runs under the NT Authority/System user and should set you right up. The job name will be AT#.

Note: The GUI scheduler and the AT command use two different API's. Jobs scheduled with the GUI cannot be seen by the AT command but jobs scheduled with the AT command can be seen by the GUI.

[wissamyoussif]

Hi Sidewinder, thanks for your line but that also didn't work and yielded a "Could not start" status in Scheduled Tasks. The Advanced Properties that I've talked and you asked about are those of the task itself when you create a new one using the "Scheduled Task Wizard", after several "Next's" and before the "Finish", you'll be prompted to literally "Open advanced properties for this task when I click Finish".

[Sidewinder]

There was no other information besides "Could not start"? What code is in the last result column? Did you check the event log, there may be more info there. Who is logged onto this machine when the shutdown starts?

NT Authority jobs should run no matter who is signed on. On the property sheet for the scheduled job, check the task tab. What is in the RunAs box? Is the Run Only If Logged On box checked? If not you must supply a password for the account. The enabled box must be checked for the job to run.

 

[wissamyoussif]

Hooray Sidewinder, at last it works and finally I can get my daily sleep! The catch was that, by default, the Run Only If Logged On box was unchecked so I checked it. Thanks