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Automatically reboot idle computers

Post image for Automatically reboot idle computers

by Steve Wiseman on March 27, 2015 · 4 comments

in Tips,Tools,Utility


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Back in 2011 we created a tool called IdleLogoff. It was designed to automatically logoff users that no longer moved the keyboard or mouse for a set amount of time.

This is usually needed for compliance reasons or in some cases public kiosks.

How it works is you run the program from the startup folder (Usually through a batch file) and call it like this:

idlelogoff.exe [timeout] [action]

After many requests, we have added the ability to restart the computer when it is idle.

Here are all of the possibilities:

timeout – The number of idle seconds before the action is taken

action – [logoff / lock / shutdown / restart] You can lock, log the user off, shutdown or restart the workstation.

If you wanted a computer to reboot after 5 minutes (300 Seconds) of no activity, You would call it like this:

idlelogoff.exe 300 REBOOT

If you wanted it to lock the workstation after 30 seconds of no activity this would do the trick:

idlelogoff.exe 30 LOCK

If you wanted it to shutdown the workstation after 30 seconds of no activity this would do it:

idlelogoff.exe 30 SHUTDOWN

It has some sanity checking for the timeout. Anything less than 10 seconds is set back to 10 seconds. This prevents a situation where you can no longer login because the utility keeps logging you off.

To run it, create a bat file that calls it and put it in the startup folder. This way it will run at login. The application will give no indication that it is active. You can only kill or see that it is running via task manager.

Download it from here:

http://www.intelliadmin.com/idlelogoff.exe

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{ 4 comments… read them below or add one }

1 Dave March 27, 2015 at 11:59 am

Thanks for updating this guys. I have a situation where I need this exact feature. I want to reboot since we are running software that re-images on reboot. User walks up and uses and abuses the computer. As soon as it goes idle it reboots and goes back to a clean image. Perfect

2 Mike Sunderland March 27, 2015 at 12:02 pm

Hi,

Dave’s reasons is why I was one of the people requesting the restart option.

3 Jennifer March 27, 2015 at 12:05 pm

Us too. We use it with deepfreeze

4 Roger June 19, 2015 at 12:39 pm

Hi Steve,

As this monitor mouse and keyboard, will this work for users are still running because someone has “switched user” on them and they don’t realise they are still logged on?

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