How to shut down the computer from C#

Question

What's the best way to shut down the computer from a C# program?

I've found a few methods that work - I'll post them below - but none of them are very elegant. I'm looking for something that's simpler and natively .net.

Answer 1

You can launch the shutdown process:

• shutdown -s -t 0 - Shutdown
• shutdown -r -t 0 - Restart

Answer 2

Just to add to Pop Catalin's answer, here's a one liner which shuts down the computer without displaying any windows:

Process.Start(new ProcessStartInfo("shutdown", "/s /t 0") {
  CreateNoWindow = true, UseShellExecute = false
});

Answer 3

I tried roomaroo's WMI method to shutdown Windows 2003 Server, but it would not work until I added `[STAThread]' (i.e. "Single Threaded Apartment" threading model) to the Main() declaration:

[STAThread]
public static void Main(string[] args) {
    Shutdown();
}

I then tried to shutdown from a thread, and to get that to work I had to set the "Apartment State" of the thread to STA as well:

using System.Management;
using System.Threading;

public static class Program {

    [STAThread]
    public static void Main(string[] args) {
        Thread t = new Thread(new ThreadStart(Program.Shutdown));
        t.SetApartmentState(ApartmentState.STA);
        t.Start();
        ...
    }

    public static void Shutdown() {
        // roomaroo's code
    }
}

I'm a C# noob, so I'm not entirely sure of the significance of STA threads in terms of shutting down the system (even after reading the link I posted above). Perhaps someone else can elaborate...?

Answer 4

Different methods:

A. System.Diagnostics.Process.Start("Shutdown", "-s -t 10");

B. Windows Management Instrumentation (WMI)

• http://www.csharpfriends.com/Forums/ShowPost.aspx?PostID=36953
• http://www.dreamincode.net/forums/showtopic33948.htm

C. System.Runtime.InteropServices Pinvoke

• http://bytes.com/groups/net-c/251367-shutdown-my-computer-using-c

D. System Management

• http://www.geekpedia.com/code36_Shut-down-system-using-Csharp.html

After I submit, I have seen so many others also have posted...

Answer 5

Note that shutdown.exe is just a wrapper around InitiateSystemShutdownEx, which provides some niceties missing in ExitWindowsEx

Answer 6

Use shutdown.exe. To avoid problem with passing args, complex execution, execution from WindowForms use PowerShell execute script:

using System.Management.Automation;
...
using (PowerShell PowerShellInstance = PowerShell.Create())
{
    PowerShellInstance.AddScript("shutdown -a; shutdown -r -t 100;");
    // invoke execution on the pipeline (collecting output)
    Collection<PSObject> PSOutput = PowerShellInstance.Invoke();
} 

System.Management.Automation.dll should be installed on OS and available in GAC.

Sorry for My english.