How to Shut Down or Restart Another Computer Using CMD

Using CMD

1. How to Shut Down or Restart Another Computer Using CMD Picture 1
   Click the Start button

   How to Shut Down or Restart Another Computer Using CMD Picture 2

   . It's the button with the Windows icon in the lower-left corner.
2. How to Shut Down or Restart Another Computer Using CMD Picture 3
   Type cmd. This searches for the command prompt and displays it at the top of the Windows Start menu.
3. How to Shut Down or Restart Another Computer Using CMD Picture 4
   Right-click Command Prompt. It has an icon that resembles a black screen with a white prompt. Right-clicking this icon displays a menu to the right of the Command Prompt icon.
4. How to Shut Down or Restart Another Computer Using CMD Picture 5
   Click Run as administrator. This opens the Command Prompt with administrative privileges.

   1. You must be signed in to Windows using an administrative account in order to run the Command Prompt as an administrator.
5. How to Shut Down or Restart Another Computer Using CMD Picture 6
   Type shutdown in the Command Prompt. This is the first line to shut down a computer.

   1. To see a complete list of shutdown commands, type shutdown /? in the Command Prompt.
6. How to Shut Down or Restart Another Computer Using CMD Picture 7
   Type m computername. Type this one space after "shutdown" on the same line. Replace "computername" with the actual name of the target computer.
7. How to Shut Down or Restart Another Computer Using CMD Picture 8
   Type /s or /r one space after the computer name. If you want to shut down the target computer type "/s" one space after the computer name. To restart the computer, type "/r" one space after the computer name.
8. How to Shut Down or Restart Another Computer Using CMD Picture 9
   Type /f. Type this one space after "/s" or "/r". This forces all programs to close on the remote computer.

   1. Note: The user may lose unsaved work if programs are forced to close without saving. Continue to the next step to learn how to alert the user and give them a few seconds to save their work before the computer or shuts down or restarts.
   2. The entire command so far should look something similar to this: shutdown workspace1 /r /f. Press ↵ Enter to restart the computer immediately. Continue to the next step to add a timer with a comment.
9. How to Shut Down or Restart Another Computer Using CMD Picture 10
   Type /c. This goes one space after "/f" on the same line. This allows to you send a message to the target computer.
10. How to Shut Down or Restart Another Computer Using CMD Picture 11
    Type a message in quotation marks. This goes one space after "/c". The message should alert the user of the remote computer that the computer will shutdown. For example, you could type "This computer will restart. Please save all work". Make sure the message is in quotation marks (" ") .
11. How to Shut Down or Restart Another Computer Using CMD Picture 12
    Type /t followed by the number of seconds. This goes one space after the message in the previous step. This is how you can give the user a few seconds to save their work before the computer shuts down. For example, /t 60 would give the user sixty seconds to save their work before their computer shuts down or restarts.
12. How to Shut Down or Restart Another Computer Using CMD Picture 13
    Press ↵ Enter. This executes the command. The entire command should look something similar to this: shutdown mworkspace1 /r /f /c "This computer will restart in 60 seconds. Please save all work." /t 60.

    1. If you receive a message that says Access Denied, make sure you are signed in to an administrative account and that you have administrative access to the target computer. See Method 3 to learn how to enable File and Printer Sharing on both computers and allow it through the Windows Firewall.
    2. If you are unable to connect to the registry on the target computer, see Method 4 to learn how to edit the registry on the target computer.