Unless Windows has other ideas in mind, restarting and shutting down your computer isn’t complicated. But if you want to schedule these actions, you’ll need to visit the system console and use special commands. The alternative is CoolShutdownTimer, an open-source application that lets you schedule restart, shutdown, logout, hibernation, and access to the Windows maintenance section.
The Shutdown command in Windows is very useful for scheduling restart or shutdown actions on your PC with relative ease. I say “relative” because not everyone wants to enter the system console, and the Shutdown help section can be a bit intimidating. I’ve previously mentioned alternatives like Adios - Shutdown Timer and EasyShutdown that reduce this scheduling to a few clicks, but today I want to add CoolShutdownTimer, with a more colorful interface and an open-source profile.
How to schedule the restart and shutdown of your PC with CoolShutdownTimer
The program doesn’t have a traditional installer and works directly from a temporary folder. Its developer indicates that the only potential requirement is the Microsoft Visual C++ 2015 redistributable, but that module should already be installed on most Windows 10 and Windows 11 computers.
At the bottom of the interface you’ll find the Choose Action menu, which defines the action to schedule. The total number of options adds up to five: Shutdown, Restart, Log Off, Hibernate and Maintenance (that is, the Windows recovery menu). CoolShutdownTimer doesn’t minimize to the system tray when minimized, but stays on the taskbar. If you need to interrupt a schedule, it’s enough to click Stop.
The second menu available in CoolShutdownTimer (hidden in the top left corner of the interface) has only aesthetic options. The program comes with ten presets, but you can also modify the primary, secondary, and text colors (17 each). Finally, I must mention that CoolShutdownTimer hasn’t received updates in a couple of years, and its download via GitHub is carried out using a mirror on Mega, but VirusTotal shows no alerts.
Official site and download: Click here
