The Ultimate Windows Shutdown Application

I have never seen that many shutdown options in my life. That was my first thought when I saw a screenshot of Dshutdown, a software created by the Italian programmer Dimio. It offers normal shutdown options like shutting the PC down at a specific time or when a program is closed, and basically all the standard shutdown options that you get when you want to shut down the system or use third party applications that let you change a system's power state.

What about shutting down a computer when a pixel changes its color, if the user is inactive for a certain amount of time, shutting down when a shutdown request has been intercepted, if a upload, download speed is reached or a process is using more or less than a specified amount of CPU usage.

You may ask yourself why a shutdown program would intercept a shutdown request. It's pretty easy to explain, DShutdown allows to configure customized shutdowns. It is for instance possible to execute a program, backup or run a temp file clearer for instance, before shutting down. Users can define the type of shutdown as well:  do you want to go into hibernation, power off, log off for instance or write a log file.

So, whenever a shut down is initiated by a third party program or the user, DShutdown will automatically intervene and run the configured actions before the system changes its power state.

It is furthermore possible to remotely shutdown computers, this means that you can shutdown more than one computer if one of them receives a shutdown command. Awesome software, 200 Kilobyte, no installation needed.

To download the program scroll down on the website of the developer until you find the program's entry there. Note that it is listed as compatible with Vista or earlier versions of Windows only. It should run fine on newer versions of Windows as well.

Dshutdown Review

You run DShutdown right away: the program does not need to be installed and all you have to do is extract the archive it is provided in on your device to run it. The program displays all of its options on a single page; the sheer number may confuse some users but all is positioned well and it should not take more than a minute or two to take it all in and get accustomed to the settings, switches, toggles, and fields the program supports.

The left sidebar displays all available shutdown types which you may combine as you see fit. You could for instance select Save Screenshot, Close a program, and Start a program to run these operations when certain criteria are met.

Next up are the shutdown options. These are listed in the sidebar and the main interface. You could set a timer to run the tasks at a specific time or after a certain amount of time has passed.

You could also configure it to run the tasks on inactivity, when a program is closed, or on certain Internet related criteria such as download speed dropping below a threshold, when Internet traffic exceeds a limit, or when the PC goes offline.

Another shutdown option is to run the operation when CPU usage of the system or individual processes is higher or less than a given percentage.

DShutdown supports local and remote shutdown operations which means that you can shut down remote devices in the same network.

Closing Words and verdict

DShutdown is a powerful program to automate certain shutdown related tasks on Windows devices. The sheer number of options may be intimidating at first but it is relatively easy to configure an operation.

The program supports a number of unique options such as the ability to intercept system shutdowns to run the user configured options prior to that.

Advertisement