ShutdownUnless
ShutdownUnless is another app of mine, now integrated into dSupportSuite, which is designed to set a scheduled shutdown or restart operation at the specified time – UNLESS there are open applications or files (e.g. Quickbooks .QBW files, Microsoft Office docs, etc. etc.) which you have configured to abort the operation when these apps/files are open. Very useful to keep a workstation or server running it’s best (after a reboot of course!) on a schedule, without performing the operation and losing data in your open apps/files. You also have the option of terminating processes prior, or stopping certain services before the operation (useful on Server 2003 and below where you should shut down Exchange services before restart to avoid a race condition that renders the system locked for about 15-20 minutes during the shutdown process.)
Schedule a Shutdown/Restart of the PC
- Enable Schedule – This option of course enables the schedule. Note in the box below for time, it must be specified in 24-hour format with seconds, else it will fail! e.g. 6am = 06:00:00
- Force Hung Apps to Close – This option does not wait for applications to close if they are hung, and forces the operation.
- Write Events to Application Log – Writes an event to the system application event log when an operation has succeeded or failed.
- Email on Successful Shutdown/Restart – Sends an email alert on successful operation, when no pre-configured files or processes are open. Emails are sent to whomever is configured to receive ‘Event Alerts’ in the SMTP Config / Email Defaults section.
- Email on Aborted Shutdown/Restart – Sends an email alert on an aborted operation (when one or more processes or files specified below are open.) Emails are sent to whomever is configured to receive ‘Event Alerts’ in the SMTP Config / Email Defaults section.
- Shutdown instead of Reboot – Shuts down the system. By default with this unchecked, the system will reboot.
Stop Processes and Services to a Shutdown/Restart Operation
- Stop Services – Add or remove services here to stop prior to a shutdown/restart operation. Fill in the combo box below with a service name (the actual service name, NOT the display name!!) or select an installed service from the list.
- Terminate Processes – Add or remove processes here to terminate prior to a shutdown/restart operation. Fill in the combo box below with a process name, or select a running process from the list.
Abort Shutdown/Restart Operation when Processes are Running or Files are Open
- Processes – Add or remove processes here to abort a shutdown/restart if they are running at the time of the operation. Fill in the combo box below with a process name, or select a running process from the list.
- Open Files – Add or remove files here to abort a shutdown/restart if they are ‘open’ (meaning if there is an active open file handle to the file from a local or network process.) Click the Add button to browse for a local file to add to this list.
- Test button – IMPORTANT! Not all processes will hold an open file handle to a certain file type. For example, notepad.exe does not hold an open handle to the text file it is editing, however Microsoft Word does. After you select a file, be sure to open the app that uses that file first, and TEST to see if the file has an open handle – which will let you know whether this condition will function properly when an operation is initiated.
Test Operation button – This button merely tests the full current configuration to determine if the PC will shutdown/restart or abort in a real-world scenario (it does not actually perform the operation itself, just the check to see if it would succeed or abort.) If the operation would not succeed, but rather abort due to your configuration, it will give you a reason why (e.g. which files are open or processes are running.)
All settings on this page will propagate to the dSupportSuite client on the PC after it performs a configuration update (if the ‘enable config update on every application launch’ feature is enabled on the Auto Updates / Scheduling page.)