Windows shutdown in command line

The most common ways to use the shutdown command are:

• shutdown -s — Shuts down.
• shutdown -r — Restarts.
• shutdown -l — Logs off.
• shutdown -h — Hibernates.
  Note: There is a common pitfall wherein users think -h means "help" (which it does for every other command-line program... except shutdown.exe, where it means "hibernate"). They then run shutdown -h and accidentally turn off their computers. Watch out for that.
• shutdown -i — "Interactive mode". Instead of performing an action, it displays a GUI dialog.
• shutdown -a — Aborts a previous shutdown command.

The commands above can be combined with these additional options:

• -f — Forces programs to exit. Prevents the shutdown process from getting stuck.
• -t <seconds> — Sets the time until shutdown. Use -t 0 to shutdown immediately.
• -c <message> — Adds a shutdown message. The message will end up in the Event Log.
• -y — Forces a "yes" answer to all shutdown queries.
  Note: This option is not documented in any official documentation. It was discovered by these StackOverflow users.