# Is there any way I can force my computer to shut down after a certain length of time? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [October 1, 2002, 3:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-any-way-i-can-force-my-computer-to-shut-down-after-a-certain-length-of-time/130360 "2002-10-01T03:18:25Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Muad\_Dib](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/35a633/32.png) [@Muad\_Dib](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Muad_Dib)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2002, 3:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-any-way-i-can-force-my-computer-to-shut-down-after-a-certain-length-of-time/130360/1 "2002-10-01T03:18:25Z")
I am trying to record something off of a tape player, and I would like to let the program run while I sleep. However, If I do so, the program will just continue running indefinitely until someone manually stops it. So unless anyone know of any sound recording free or shareware with a timer, I would like to know how to force the computer itself to shutdown. Unfortunately hibernate or standby modes will not activate if a program is writing something to the hard drive. ---
**Author:** ![Number](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/number/32/242_2.png) [@Number](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Number)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2002, 3:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-any-way-i-can-force-my-computer-to-shut-down-after-a-certain-length-of-time/130360/2 "2002-10-01T03:36:32Z")
What OS? ---
**Author:** ![capybara](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/capybara/32/202_2.png) [@capybara](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/capybara)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2002, 3:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-any-way-i-can-force-my-computer-to-shut-down-after-a-certain-length-of-time/130360/3 "2002-10-01T03:50:21Z")
I know you can on a Mac (under energy saver control panel-- under schedule (in 9)), but I bet you aren’t on a Mac (purely a statistical guess). ---
**Author:** ![Muad\_Dib](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/35a633/32.png) [@Muad\_Dib](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Muad_Dib)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2002, 3:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-any-way-i-can-force-my-computer-to-shut-down-after-a-certain-length-of-time/130360/4 "2002-10-01T03:56:37Z")
Woops, Win XP. ---
**Author:** ![ultrafilter](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/3d9bf3/32.png) [@ultrafilter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ultrafilter)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2002, 4:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-any-way-i-can-force-my-computer-to-shut-down-after-a-certain-length-of-time/130360/5 "2002-10-01T04:00:53Z")
How’s your coding experience? 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![DarrenS](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/977dab/32.png) [@DarrenS](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DarrenS)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2002, 4:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-any-way-i-can-force-my-computer-to-shut-down-after-a-certain-length-of-time/130360/6 "2002-10-01T04:05:01Z")
There are plenty of shareware/freeware utilities out there to do that - for example: [http://www.tucows.com/system/shutdown95.html](http://www.tucows.com/system/shutdown95.html) (don’t worry about the 95 in the URL, there are utils for all versions of Windows.) ---
**Author:** ![Muad\_Dib](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/35a633/32.png) [@Muad\_Dib](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Muad_Dib)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2002, 4:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-any-way-i-can-force-my-computer-to-shut-down-after-a-certain-length-of-time/130360/7 "2002-10-01T04:23:08Z")
Found several great little programs that did just as I asked. I then realised that the recorded file will be lost unless it is manually saved. :smack: ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2002, 12:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-any-way-i-can-force-my-computer-to-shut-down-after-a-certain-length-of-time/130360/8 "2002-10-01T12:35:37Z")
Look into software the records mouse macros. You can set one up that will wait some number of minutes, then click your program’s end/save/exit. Then another time-delay program to shut down the computer. Although, if you just set your computer’s power settings to power down the hard-drive and whatnot after a certain period of inactivity, and you switch off your monitor, power consumption can be pretty trivial. ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2002, 12:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-any-way-i-can-force-my-computer-to-shut-down-after-a-certain-length-of-time/130360/9 "2002-10-01T12:40:49Z")
Look into software the records mouse macros. You can set one up that will wait some number of minutes, then click your program’s end/save/exit. Then another time-delay program to shut down the computer. Although, if you just set your computer’s power settings to power down the hard-drive and whatnot after a certain period of inactivity, and you switch off your monitor, power consumption can be pretty trivial. ---
**Author:** ![scr4](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/59ef9b/32.png) [@scr4](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/scr4)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2002, 12:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-any-way-i-can-force-my-computer-to-shut-down-after-a-certain-length-of-time/130360/10 "2002-10-01T12:53:36Z")
There are audio recorder programs that can be programmed like a VCR. You could set it to record for one hour, and set the shutdown utility to kick in after that. I used to use such a software to record a radio show but I can’t remember the name, sorry. You can do a web search and find a few.