AMP WinOFF 4.21

Description
License agreement
Installation
Usage notes
Command line support
Known problems and limitations
Credits

1. Description

This is an utility designed to shut down Windows computers automatically, with several working ways and fully configurable. Some of its features are:

Shut down the computer at certain hour (e.g. at 12:00).
Shut down the computer in several minutes (e.g. in 15 minutes).
Shut down the computer when the CPU becomes idle.
Several types of shut down (shut down, restart, log off, power off, suspend, hibernate and lock computer).
Option for hang up the modem instead of doing a shut down.
Option for set a password to protect the access to the configuration.
Complete command line support for batch process.
Option for capture the desktop and/or execute a program before the shut down.
Option for run the program when starting Windows session, for daily programmed shut down.
Immediate shut down and computer lock from the traybar icon menu.
Option for show an alert window, which allow the cancellation of the shut down.
Works with Windows 9x/Me/NT/2000/XP.
Dual English/Spanish version.

See Changes.txt for changes history.

If you have any suggestion, you find a bug, etc., send me an e-mail.

2. License agreement

This software is freeware, but only for PERSONAL AND NON-PROFIT USE. For commercial, corporate, educational or government use, or inclusion in any distribution made for profit (software compilations, CD's...) you must contact the author for authorization.

This software is provided "as is", WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY OF ANY KIND. The author declines responsibility for any damages arising out of the use of this program.

You can redistribute this software for free, as long as you don't charge any money, and only if you use the original package. If you don't have a copy of the original package, you can download it from the AMPSoft web site at http://www.ampsoft.net.

3. Installation

The program is distributed in two formats:

Installer: Execute the .EXE file and follow the instructions of the install program.

ZIP file: Simply extract the program's files into the folder where you want the program installed, and then make a shortcut to the executable file.

4. Usage notes

Due to the differences among Windows 9x/Me and NT/2000/XP, the same option may work different in each version. This is a description of how work the four basic shut down options:
1. Shut down will close the system in Windows 95, will power off the computer in Windows 98/Me and will close the system (without powering of the computer) in Windows NT/2000/XP.
2. Close session will close the current session in all supported versions of Windows.
3. Restart will restart the computer in all supported versions of Windows.
4. Power off will power off the computer in Windows NT/2000/XP and will close the session in Windows 9x/Me.
Windows NT/2000/XP should use Power off for shutting down the system, while Windows 9x users should use Shut down instead.
To make hibernate option works, you need to enable the hibernation support in the Energy options of the Control panel. If this is not enabled (or if your version of Windows don't support hibernation), the computer will be suspended instead.
Lock computer is only supported by Windows NT/2000/XP.
The Force shut down option assure that the computer will be shut down, no matter what programs would be actived. In the other hand, you may lose any unsaved data of these programs, so use this option carefully. This option don't have any effect when using Hang up modem or Lock computer modes.
When a program is executed before the shut down, AMP WinOFF will wait for the program termination, so if the programs don't end (e.g. it wait for user input to terminate), the computer will not be shut down.
The mode for shut down the computer when the CPU is idle would be useful when you need to do a task that take a long computation time. You can let the computer working by night, and when the task finish, the CPU will become idle and the computer will be shut down.
If the Date option is not checked and you check the Auto-reactivate last programmed shut down option, the program will shut down the computer every day at the same time.
The option Use settings for all Windows users affects also to the Run when starting Windows session option, so if both options are checked, the program will be executed for every user that logs in.
The option Hang up the modem before the shut down is useful to assure that the phone line become available if the computers hangs before the shut down, or if the selected shut mode don't closes the computer.
The option Disable the screen saver while monitoring CPU load is useful to prevent that it could add more load to the CPU and interfere with the percentage of use detection.
In Windows NT/2000/XP most of the administrative options are saved only if you log in with an user member of Administrators group.

5. Command line support

AMP WinOFF supports several parameters that allow run it directly from the command line, for a batch shut down. In this mode, the program performs the selected action an immediately without showing the cancel dialog. The suported parameters are:

"-batch": The program close the computer using the options previously saved with the configuration window.
"-shutdown": The program shut down the computer.
"-logoff": The program closes the session.
"-reboot'": The program reboot the computer.
"-poweroff": The program power off the computer.
"-suspend": The program supends the computer.
"-hibernate": The program hibernates the computer.
"-lock": The program locks the computer.
"-hangup": The program hang up the modem.

In adition to those parameters, you can combinate them with these ones:

"-force": The computer is forced to perform the selected action.
"-noforce": The selected action is performed without forcing it.

For example, if you wish to do an immediate reboot with force you can type this in the command line:

WinOFF -reboot -force

You also can use the parameter "-quiet" to start WinOFF without showing the main window and active with the last saved configuration.

6. Known problems and limitations

In Windows NT/2000/XP, the user need to have the proper rights in order to close the computer and/or hang up the modem.
The Shut down if aborted option currently only works in Windows 9x/Me. I have planned add support to Windows NT/2000/XP in a future release.
The Power off option doesn't work always on Windows NT/2000/XP (mainly in NT). Some people have reported that this option worked fine in their computers, but others tell me that this option restart the computer instead of power it off. This is a issue of the version of Windows NT used and the Power Management configuration of Windows 2000 or the BIOS (if there is any problems, check your BIOS settings).
Related to the note before, in some computers using the hibernate option make the computer restart after saving the hiberte information. This is usually related to improper configuration of Power Mangagement settings of the BIOS. In some cases you will need a BIOS update to fix this (Note: only update your BIOS if you know what are you doing).
The password and other settings are stored in the Windows Registry, so if you want to assure that the configuration is not modified you should block the access to the registry to other users than the administrator, at least to the LOCAL_MACHINE section (This is the default setting in Windows 2000/XP). Also, the password is encoded instead of encrypted, so a (very) advanced user with access to the registry could decode it.
If you receive the error message "Unable to locate the 'Processor' performance object" when trying to use the CPU idle mode, this is caused by having disabled the performance monitoring options. That feature comes enabled in Windows by default, so you should talk to the person in charge of the computer to have it reenabled.
In some systems the computer is not closed properly if the monitor or the hard drives are in power saving mode.

7. Credits

Thanks to Alexey A. Dynnikov (http://www.aldyn.ru/) for his sample code about CPU idle detection in Windows NT/2000/XP.

Thanks to Javier Caneiro, Juan Ignacio Fernandez, Fiton Huang, Mark Decent, Juan Andrés Botero R., Héctor García, and other people for their support and suggestions.