ShutdownUnless v2.0 (FREE!)

Any sys admin knows that to keep a Windows server running well, sometimes you just need to restart it.  A best practice is to schedule a restart via Windows Task Scheduler, perhaps nightly or weekly to keep it running smooth.  

This presents a problem with some server setups, as there may be open files (e.g. database files) on the server, perhaps a user left the database client open on their workstation, and if the server restarts while the database is open it could cause corruption in the database!!!  

The main purpose of ShutdownUnless is to detect whether these important files are currently open, and ABORT the shutdown/restart process if they are, thus preventing that corruption.  

Optionally, ShutdownUnless can abort the shutdown/restart operation if certain predefined processes are running for the same purpose.  It can optionally kill predefined processes, and even stop services prior to the shutdown/restart operation.  Another thing sys admins know is that certain services will cause a restart operation to hang 15-30 minutes or even indefinitely (ahem Exchange 2003) but stopping these services prior to the restart op will allow it to restart in a timely manner.  

Last, in addition to writing the events to the event logs, ShutdownUnless can now email you when a successful shutdown/restart occurs, or an aborted one, also telling you WHY the operation was aborted (e.g. one of your files was open or a process was running.)  

The email option can be useful even if you don’t configure ShutdownUnless to abort on open files or running processes, because sometimes you just want the piece of mind in knowing that your scheduled reboot for maintenance actually occurred.  

This app is completely free for personal and commercial use.  If you do find it useful, I would appreciate a donation, a nice email, or perhaps you could submit a testimonial on my website.  

Thanks!