AutoShutdown (Portable Windows Freeware)

A tiny, portable Windows tool to schedule a shutdown at a specific time or after a countdown. Uses the built-in shutdown command under the hood, so it doesn't require admin rights in normal cases.

Features

• Pick a date & time to shut down the PC.
• Start a countdown (seconds) to shut down.
• Shows remaining time (if a shutdown is scheduled).
• Cancel a scheduled shutdown at any time.
• Portable: publish as a single EXE (no installer).

Screenshot

(UI is a compact WinForms window with time picker, countdown box, and Schedule/Start/Cancel buttons.)

Getting Started

1) Prerequisites

For (v2.0.1 and later)

• Lightweight (around 120 Kb) portable exe that does not need .NET or other prequisites like VCRedist.

For (v2.0.0)

• Lightweight. If you get VCRuntime errors, download and install~ [Visual C++ Redistributable (2015–2022)] https://aka.ms/vs/17/release/vc_redist.x64.exe

For (v.1.0.0) .NET Dependent build

• Windows 10 or later.
• .NET 8 SDK (for building from source).

2) Build (Debug, non-portable)

cd src/AutoShutdown
dotnet build

3) Publish Portable (single EXE)

This creates a standalone exe you can copy anywhere.

cd src/AutoShutdown
dotnet publish -c Release -r win-x64 --self-contained true /p:PublishSingleFile=true /p:IncludeNativeLibrariesForSelfExtract=true -o ../../publish

• Output will be in publish/AutoShutdown.exe.
• The executable will have the included power switch icon.

4) Usage

• Schedule at time: choose a date/time and click Schedule Shutdown.
• Countdown: enter seconds and click Start Countdown.
• Cancel: click Cancel Scheduled Shutdown (or run shutdown /a manually).
• When a schedule is active, Windows displays a toast and the tool shows the remaining time.

Under the hood we call: shutdown /s /t <seconds>. Cancel uses shutdown /a.

5) Notes

• If you close the app, a schedule created via shutdown /s /t continues (it's system-level). Use Cancel or shutdown /a to abort.
• Hibernation/Hybrid shutdown settings can influence behavior on some PCs.
• No data is collected; the app makes no network calls.

Repository Layout

AutoShutdown/
├── .gitignore
├── LICENSE
├── README.md
└── src/
    └── AutoShutdown/
        ├── AutoShutdown.csproj
        ├── Program.cs
        ├── MainForm.cs
        ├── MainForm.Designer.cs
        └── Resources/
            └── powerswitch.ico

License

MIT