How to Remotely Shut Down or Restart Your Windows 10 PC

A remote shutdown or restart comes in handy when you have several PCs set up in different rooms and don’t want to keep visiting each machine to shut down or restart it physically. Thankfully, Windows 10 offers a utility through which you can shut down or restart PCs connected to your network.

This includes the Shutdown.exe utility that simply shuts down or restarts Windows 10 PCs in your local network once they’re configured accordingly. From here on it’s only a matter of seconds to perform the tasks remotely.

Here’s how to remotely shut down or restart your Windows 10 PC.

Enable remote registry service

If you want to shut down or restart your PC remotely, you’ll start by configuring each computer in your local network.

By default, the remote registry service is disabled. To enable it, use the steps below.

1. On the Windows 10 PC you want to remotely shut down or restart, launch the Services control panel. Click Start and type services.msc in the search bar. Press Enter to open the Services app.

2. Find Remote Registry from the list of search results.

3. Right-click on it and select Properties.

4. Find Startup Type in the Properties Window, and set it to Automatic.

5. Click Start to launch it.

6. Go to the computer’s firewall, and open the required port.

7. In the search bar type “Allow an app through Windows Firewall.”

9. Click Change Settings.

10. Enable the Windows Management Instrumentation (WMI) exception. You’ll need admin permissions to do this on the remote computer, otherwise the command will fail. Press OK once done.

How to Perform Remote Shutdown

In order to shut down your Windows 10 PC, take the following steps:

1. Click Start and type Command Prompt .

2. Press Enter. The Command Prompt window will open.

3. Type this command:

4. In the remote shutdown dialog, add one or more names of PCs, and specify if you want to shut down or restart. You also have the option to warn users and log a message to the event log.

Note: you can find the name of the remote computer by clicking “Start -> right click Computer -> Properties.”

Use a Command Line

This method requires you to tweak some registry settings to shut down or restart your Windows 10 PC. However, you need to follow the steps carefully, as any misconfiguration in the registry can destabilize the system.

Follow these steps:

1. Right-click Start and select Run.

2. Type regedit and press Enter.

3. Go to the following registry key:

4. Right-click System folder.

5. Select “New -> DWORD (32-bit) Value.”

6. Enter the label: LocalAccountTokenFilterPolicy.

7. Double-click the value, and change it to “1.”

8. Close and exit the registry.

9. Reboot to confirm changes. You can now shut down or restart your PC remotely.

10. Next, click Start and type Command Prompt.

11. Right-click and select “Run as Administrator.”

12. At the Command Prompt window log into the computer. For example: net use \\MachineName and press Enter.

13. At the Microsoft Account ID or machine, type your username and password.

and press Enter.

Depending on the switches you pick, your remote computer should shut down or restart automatically.

You can also specify longer periods for these processes, and to ensure it shuts down or restarts, add /f switch to the command line as follows:

to close any running apps on the remote machine.

Batch File

This method helps when you want to remotely shut down or restart a Windows 10 PC at the same time every day.

While using a command line works, it may be a drag if you have to do this every time. The easier option is to automate the process of shutting down and/or restarting all your Windows 10 PCs.

1. Launch Notepad.

2. Enter the remote shutdown and/or restart command with the network of each computer on a new line. For example:

Note: depending on whether you want to shut down (-s) or restart (-r), you can modify the switches and then save the file on your desktop using .the bat extension, i.e. shutdownrestart.bat.

Drop us a comment, and let us know which of these methods worked for you.

My passion has always been to share every bit of useful information I find on tech, with the ultimate goal of helping people solve a problem.

How to Remote Shutdown or Restart Your Windows 10 PC

If you have multiple always-on Windows 10 PCs set up in your home in different rooms, it can be a chore to shut down or reboot each one. Instead of physically visiting each machine, you can remotely reboot or shut down each machine. This article takes a quick look at a couple of options.

Shut Down or Restart a Windows 10 PC Using Remote Desktop

The simplest way to shutdown or reboot a remote Windows 10 computer is to connect via Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP) and then click Start > Restart or Shut Down.

For this to work, you’ll need to be running Windows 10 Pro, Education, or Enterprise on each computer. If you have a mix of operating systems on your network, you can use TightVNC to remotely control a PC from Mac, Windows, or Linux.

Shut Down or Reboot a Networked Windows PC from the Command Line

As an alternative to VNC or RDP, you can shut down or restart a networked PC from the command line. Connect your Windows PCs to the same network, then follow the steps below.

Note: For this method, you need to tweak some registry settings. It’s a fairly simple change, but be aware that misconfiguring your registry can cause system instabilities, so follow the steps carefully.

1. On the computer that you want to reboot or shutdown remotely, press Windows key + R, type: regedit then hit Enter on your keyboard.
2. Navigate to the following registry key Computer\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\System. If you are running Windows 10 1703 or later, you can quickly find registry keys by copying and pasting the registry path into the address bar and hit Enter.
3. Right click on the System folder, select New > DWORD (32-bit) Value.

Enter the following label: LocalAccountTokenFilterPolicy.

Double-click the value then change the value to 1.

Exit the registry then restart your computer to confirm changes. Now you are ready to restart or shutdown remotely.

Press Windows key + X, click Command Prompt (Admin).

At the command prompt, log into the machine. Example: net use \\MachineName then hit Enter. Enter your username on the machine or Microsoft Account ID followed by your password.

At the command prompt, type shutdown -r -m \\MachineName-t -01 then hit Enter on your keyboard.

The remote computer should automatically shut down or restart depending on the switches you choose. Notice, the command is similar to performing it locally. You can always specify a longer period for your shutdown or restart. In my case, I chose one minute. If you want to ensure the machine shuts down or restarts, you can add the /f switch, example: shutdown /m \\MachineName/r /f. This will close out all open applications running on the remote machine.

Tip: An even easier command to use is the shutdown\i command. This will bring up a graphical dialog that lets you select the remote computer or enter its name using the Add button. You can then specify whether you want to shut down or restart, and even add a comment.

Automate Multiple Shutdown/Restart Using Batch File

Connecting remotely and shutting down a computer is fine as a one-off, but what if you want to shut down or reboot a computer at the same time every day? If you have to do this through the command line every time, it becomes a drag real quick. An easier option is to automate restarting or shutting down all your computers. Fire up Notepad, then enter the remote shutdown command with each computers network name on a new line.

Fire up Notepad, then enter the remote shutdown command with each computers network name on a new line. For example:

You can modify the switches based on whether you want to restart (-r) or shutdown (-s). Proceed to save the file using the .bat extension on your desktop, for example, shutdownrestart.bat

That’s it! Once you’ve mastered remote shutdowns, be sure to check out our Wake on LAN article. Great for scenarios where you need to wake up a machine to access resources.

Drop a line in the comments and let us know how it goes. This took a bit of trial and error to get working reliably, so I am interested in knowing if these instructions go smoothly.

Force shutdown from a remote system

Applies to

Describes the best practices, location, values, policy management, and security considerations for the Force shutdown from a remote system security policy setting.

Reference

This security setting determines which users are allowed to shut down a device from a remote location on the network. This setting allows members of the Administrators group or specific users to manage computers (for tasks such as a restart) from a remote location.

Possible values

• User-defined list of accounts
• Administrators

Best practices

• Explicitly restrict this user right to members of the Administrators group or other assigned roles that require this capability, such as non-administrative operations staff.

Location

Computer Configuration\Windows Settings\Security Settings\Local Policies\User Rights Assignment

Default values

By default this setting is Administrators and Server Operators on domain controllers and Administrators on stand-alone servers.

The following table lists the actual and effective default policy values for the most recent supported versions of Windows. Default values are also listed on the policy’s property page.

Server type or GPO	Default value
Default Domain Policy	Not defined
Default Domain Controller Policy	Administrators Server Operators
Stand-Alone Server Default Settings	Administrators
Domain Controller Effective Default Settings	Administrators Server Operators
Member Server Effective Default Settings	Administrators
Client Computer Effective Default Settings	Administrators

Policy management

This section describes features, tools, and guidance to help you manage this policy.

A restart of the computer is not required for this policy setting to be effective.

Any change to the user rights assignment for an account becomes effective the next time the owner of the account logs on.

This policy setting must be applied on the computer that is being accessed remotely.

Group Policy

This user right is defined in the Default Domain Controller Group Policy Object (GPO) and in the local security policy of workstations and servers.

Settings are applied in the following order through a Group Policy Object (GPO), which will overwrite settings on the local computer at the next Group Policy update:

1. Local policy settings
2. Site policy settings
3. Domain policy settings
4. OU policy settings

When a local setting is greyed out, it indicates that a GPO currently controls that setting.

Security considerations

This section describes how an attacker might exploit a feature or its configuration, how to implement the countermeasure, and the possible negative consequences of countermeasure implementation.

Vulnerability

Any user who can shut down a device could cause a denial-of-service condition to occur. Therefore, this user right should be tightly restricted.

Countermeasure

Restrict the Force shutdown from a remote system user right to members of the Administrators group or other assigned roles that require this capability, such as non-administrative operations staff.

Potential impact

On a domain controller, if you remove the Force shutdown from a remote system user right from the Server Operator group, you could limit the abilities of users who are assigned to specific administrative roles in your environment. Confirm that delegated activities are not adversely affected.

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