Schedule restart in Windows 7

March 16, 2010 4:55 AM

How can I schedule a restart of my 64 bit Windows 7 computer every morning?

I like a fresh system when I get to work. I'd like to schedule my 64 bit version of Windows 7 to automatically restart at 6 am just before I get to work every morning.

How can I use the task scheduler to do this for me?

Thank you!

posted by Jackie_Treehorn to computers & internet (4 answers total)

Why is your computer on overnight? Most computers have a BIOS setting to wake at a certain time so you can set it to wake at 6am.

If you must restart it, just type at 06:00 shutdown -s at the command line. You can even put it in a batch file.
posted by turkeyphant at 5:09 AM on March 16, 2010

There are instructions here.
posted by transporter accident amy at 5:10 AM on March 16, 2010

Thank you.

The only thing I'd add to that page of instructions is if you want the task to work if you are not logged on at the time is to tick the box "run whether user is logged on or not". That's what works for me.

To answer the question why my computer is on overnight: My machine runs all of the backups for our 8 office computers. Including backing up to Mozy online backup every night when no one is here. There is a method to my madness! :-)

Thanks everyone for the help.
posted by Jackie_Treehorn at 6:16 AM on March 16, 2010

In that case you probably want to use a scheduled task, not the at command. Make your task run the following command:

shutdown -r -t 0

and schedule it to run every day at 06:00. You might also want to check the "run only if computer is idle" box - this might stop it interrupting a Mozy backup session, depending how smart Windows 7 is about deciding what "idle" means.
posted by flabdablet at 6:25 AM on March 16, 2010