How to remotely shutdown another Windows computer

Microsoft Windows 2000, XP (XP home users read section below) and later users can remotely shutdown another computer in their network by utilizing the shutdown command.

To start the GUI version of this command, follow these steps:

Windows 8 and 10 users

1. Press the Windows key + X on the keyboard to open the Power User menu.
2. Select the Search option in the menu.
3. In the Search text box, type shutdown -i and press Enter.

Windows Vista and 7 users

1. Click the Start button.
2. In the Search text box at the bottom of the Start menu, type shutdown -i and press Enter.

Windows 2000 and XP users

1. Click the Start button, then select the Run option.
2. In the Run window, type shutdown -i and press Enter.

After running this command you should see a dialog window shown in the example below.

As you can see in the example above, you'll have different options to choose from in the Remote Shutdown Dialog.

Tip: You need administrative privileges to access and shut down the computer remotely to complete the steps below.

1. Specify the name or IP address of the computer you want to shutdown by clicking the Add button.
2. Select Shutdown from the list of values under "What do you want these computers to do".
3. Keep the Warn users of the action option checked if you want to warn the user of the shutdown before it occurs.
4. In the "Shutdown Event Tracker" section, choose the option in the list of values that you want the Event Log to show when the computer shuts down and enter a comment.
5. Click OK to initiate the shutdown of the remote computer.

For Windows Home edition computers

If the remote computer you're attempting to shutdown is running a Home edition of Microsoft Windows, you need to enable guest remote shutdown privileges before the above steps will work. To do this, follow the steps below.

1. Download and install the Windows Resource Kit on the computer you are wanting to remotely shutdown.
2. Once downloaded and installed, copy the NtRights.exe file from the "Program Files\Windows Resource Kits\Tools" directory into the "Windows\System32" directory.
3. After the file has been copied, open a command prompt window by clicking Start, Run, and typing cmd and pressing Enter. At the prompt, type the below commands exactly as you see them here (unless your Windows directory is in a different path).
   
   cd\windows\system32
   NtRights –u Guest +r SeRemoteShutdownPrivilege
   NtRights –u Guest +r SeShutdownPrivilege
4. If successful after typing each of the above NtRights commands, you should get a success message. Once this has been completed, exit the command prompt window and restart your computer.

Once the above steps have been completed, you should be able to remotely shutdown that computer from another Windows computer.

Unable to get remote shutdown to work

Inoperable remote shutdown could be caused by any of following reasons.

• The domain administrator has group policies in place to prevent remote shutdown.
• Remote administration or the $ADMIN share is disabled.
• You're logged into an account that does not have administrative privileges.

Alternative solutions

If you're still unable to remotely shutdown a computer or are using an earlier version of Windows, there are dozens of software utilities that can be used. Our alternative recommended solutions are PowerOff and PsShutdown.exe, which is part of the freePsTools suite.

source: http://www.computerhope.com/