The easiest approach

This Auto Shutdown feature is among the most “under rated” features of Windows XP, probably because it’s not famous. There are applications dedicated to perform this function but, why increase the registry entries when you have a much better alternative?

1st Way:

Create a new shortcut, Right Click Menu shortcuts

In the “Type the location of the shortcut” type, shutdown -s -t 3600

Note: 3600 are the amount of seconds before your computer shuts down. So , 60secs*60mins=3600secs

Click next,

Name the new shortcut anything you prefer,

And you are done with the shortcut.

To abort the shutdown timer

Create another shortcut,

In the “Type the location of the shortcut” type  shutdown -a

And you are done.

2nd Way:

Here is another way to Auto shutdown. For example you wish to shutdown at 01:22am. Type this in

Start Menu, Run

Type at 01:22 shutdown -s

To abort,

start Run

Type shutdown -a

Note: The time format is 24hr,if you want to Auto Shutdown at 7:30pm, you should type

“at 19:30 shutdown -s” in the run command box, without the quotes.

3rd Way : (Creating a batch file)

Open Notepad,

Type in the following code as it is:

@echo off

title Scheduled Shutdown Batch Example at rajagrawal.com

color A

echo Enter Time To Shutdown (example 19:30)

set /p stime=

cls

at %stime% “”shutdown -s -t 00″”

echo Your PC Will Auto Shutdown At %stime%

echo Press Any Key To Exit

p.use

exit

Save it,

Rename the new file from *.txt to *.bat,

And you are done with the Auto Shutdown Batch file.

Note: Task Schedular Service must be running in the background in order for the batch method to work.

I’ve experimented with and buried many RAM optimizing applications and all of them were sick enough to not-optimize-the-RAM. I don’t know if it’s my 1GB DDR2 RAM that sucks or should i blame it on the code. Whatever the case may be, i am happy with using the RAM freeing option available in the Windows XP itself. I have tested this option on many computers and work like a charm on all. The best part is that it’s stable!

Q. Why do you need to free up the RAM?

A. To optimize the performance of your PC RAM that has been reduced by fragmentation of the applications and games you’ve been using. It also helps you decide whether you actually need to upgrade you RAM or not.
Note: If you restart your computer,obviously, the RAM is automatically freed.

Most of the users are not aware that instead of depending and downloading the RAM freeing apps, they can use the feature straight away from their computer without downloading anything.

Here is the way:

1. Make a new shortcut from the right click menu,

Type the location of the item as: “%windir%system32rundll32.exe advapi32.dll,ProcessIdleTasks ” (without the quotes),

Type the name of the shortcut (any name so that you can easily recognize it),

Test it by double clicking on the new shortcut,

And there you go, your quick RAM optimizer is at your service!