A lot of what I am covering on this blog is for people who run a Dedicated Home Theater PC. This is one of them. I always used the task scheduler and batch files to schedule restarts, normally at 3-4am so no one is watching the TV at the time. This will help keep the system running the best possible and keep the system with the best resources. I only reboot the system 1 to 2 times a week, depending on the demand of the system.
The problem is, sometimes I stay up really late and what happens when it runs is it just shuts down the PC no matter what I am doing with no option to cancel it from Media Center.
I was looking for a wile for a option but, Mikinho created this nifty little program and very simple to use. What it does is when it sees a “shutdown” command, it will run and pop this up in Media Center. So if your watching TV, you can cancel it and keep watching with out it rebooting on you !!!!
When it sees a shutdown command, it will prompt in Media Center with this type of window.
Here is the program: Abort System Shutdown
How to setup: Download, Install that Program and reboot the system.
How to setup to do a scheduled reboot:
Browse to Start\Control Panel\All Control Panel Items\Administrative Tools\
Open “Task Scheduler” and select “Create basic task” (under Actions on the right hand panel)
Name “ Scheduled Reboot” (and put any details here that you want, it will not effect anything) Next…
Check Weekly Next… Select Day/days you want the system to reboot and what time. In this example, Sunday and Wednesday @ 4:00 AM…select Next
Select “Start a program”…Next… fill in below
Program/Script: Shutdown
Add arguments (optional): -r -t 120
This will Reboot the system ( –r ) and delay it 120 seconds ( -t 120 ) before rebooting, Select Next and finish.
If you use sleep and you would like the system to “wake up” to restart, In the Task scheduler Library, find your “Scheduled Reboot” task, open it, select the “Conditions” tab, and check “Wake the computer to run this task” and hit ok.
At anytime you can go back to this Task Library and Edit your Scheduled reboot, from days to time, or even on some other options. This will make it flexible to what you need. If you want any more details on how this program works, read the details on the site where you downloaded it (above)
To Test: Have the task scheduler window open so you can see your Scheduled task of “Scheduled Reboot” listed. Open Media Center in a window. So you can see both Windows. Right click on your “Scheduled Reboot” task, Select “Run”. You should see the popup like below in Media Center after 2-5 seconds, If you select cancel, it will stop, if you hit OK or do nothing, it will reboot after about 2 minutes.
Now you can have your Scheduled reboots with out kicking someone off who is watching TV at the time. Enjoy !
clubhouse, media center, media center-windows 7, how-to, Tip