QUESTION :
I have a scheduled task that shuts down a Windows XP computer at 6:00pm every day using the following command:
shutdown.exe /s /t 600 /c "Windows will shutdown in 10 minutes. To cancel shutdown, click Start and type 'shutdown /a'."
The command works as expected except when the user has locked the workstation with Ctrl+Alt+Del.
Is there a way to shutdown a computer even when the user has locked it?
UPDATE: The documentation for the /f parameter reads:
Force running applications to close without forewarning users.
The /f parameter is implied when a value greater than 0 is
specified for the /t parameter.
From that, I assume that it is set already.
ANSWER :
Isn’t there a /f flag that forces it to shutdown?
You can indeed use the /f flag to force shutdown. But what I like better, is psshutdown ( http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/bb897541.aspx ).
Psshutdown can be used locally AND remote. I personally use the remote shutdown to reboot and apply updates at scheduled times. Shutdown.exe allows you to show a message, but psshutdown has an option to even show a “abort shutdown” button. Which is way more userfriendly.