How to shut down computers in PowerShell

Stop-Computer cmdlet

The Stop-Computer cmdlet shuts down the local or remote computer.

You can run Stop-Computer with additional options to specify authentication types and alternate credentials, and to force an immediate shutdown.

This cmdlet uses the Win32Shutdown method of the Win32_OperatingSystem WMI class.

The following two commands are identical and shutdown the local computer:

Stop-Computer
Stop-Computer -ComputerName localhost

The following example will shutdown a computer named Win-Server-Core that has an Administrator user with sufficient rights to shutdown the computer:

Stop-Computer -ComputerName Win-Server-Core -Credential Administrator

This command shuts down remote computers and the local computer.

Stop-Computer -ComputerName "Server01", "Server02", "localhost"

In the previous command, Stop-Computer uses the -ComputerName option to specify two remote computers and a local computer. Each of the listed computers will be turned off.

The following code shuts down remote computers as a background job:

$j = Stop-Computer -ComputerName "Server01", "Server02" &
$results = $j | Receive-Job
$results

In the previous example, Stop-Computer uses the -ComputerName option to specify two remote computers. The background operator “&” translates the command as a background job. The job objects are stored in the $j variable.

The job objects in the $j variable are piped to Receive-Job, which receives the job results. The objects are stored in the $results variable. The $results variable displays information about the job in the PowerShell console.

Shutting down the remote computer:

Stop-Computer -ComputerName "Server01" -WsmanAuthentication Kerberos

In the previous example, Stop-Computer uses the -ComputerName option to specify the remote computer. The -WsmanAuthentication option specifies using Kerberos to establish a remote connection.

Shutting down a computer in the domain:

$s = Get-Content -Path ./Domain01.txt
$c = Get-Credential -Credential Domain01\Admin01
Stop-Computer -ComputerName $s -Force -Credential $c

In the previous example, Get-Content uses the -Path option to read the contents of the Domain01.txt file in the current directory with a list of domain computers. The objects are stored in the $s variable.

Then Get-Credential uses the -Credential option to specify the credentials of the domain administrator. The credentials are stored in the $c variable.

Finally, Stop-Computer shuts down the computers specified in the list of computers in the -ComputerName option in the $s variable. The -Force option causes immediate shutdown. The -Credential option passes your credentials stored in the $c variable.

Error “Unable to initiate a system shutdown because the computer is being used by other users”

Running command

Stop-Computer -ComputerName Win-Server-Core -Credential Administrator

may fail with the error message:

Stop-Computer: Failed to stop the computer Win-Server-Core with the following error message: Unable to initiate a system shutdown because the computer is being used by other users

Its reason is that users are logged in to the computer and are using it.

To force shutdown, specify the -Force option:

Stop-Computer -ComputerName Win-Server-Core -Credential Administrator -Force

Shutting down the computer without PowerShell

Without PowerShell, you can shutdown your computer with the following command:

shutdown /s

You will be shown a warning and the computer will shut down after 30 seconds.

To shut down the computer immediately, run the command:

shutdown /s /t 0

You can add the /f option to the command, which means forcibly closing running applications without warning users. The /f parameter is implied if the /t parameter is set to a value greater than 0.