OS? for example
w2k use shutdown.exe from reskit, winxp contains it already. Properties. In the Target box, append the command line switch -l (to log off), -s (to shut down), or -r (to reboot). (-txx time delay)
(Win 9x)
The line should be as follows:

For RESTART Windows:
C:\WINDOWS\RUNDLL.EXE user.exe,exitwindowsexec

For SHUT DOWN Windows:
C:\WINDOWS\RUNDLL32.EXE user,exitwindows

for most OS:

DOS ECHO G=FFFF:0000 ¦ DEBUG  Reboot Warm boot, sometimes cold boot.
May not work with "exotic" memory managers, like Quarterdeck's QEMM or DesqView; in that case, use RESET.COM instead.
Win31* ECHO G=FFFF:0000 ¦ DEBUG  Task Manager popup And sometimes reboot
Win9* RUNDLL USER.EXE,ExitWindows  Shutdown (2)  
Win9* RUNDLL USER.EXE,ExitWindowsExec  See Remarks Win95: various results, usualy fast shutdown (and lock PC), sometimes restart Windows, sometimes reboot.
Win98: Restart Windows, sometimes reboot.
Win9* RUNDLL SHELL.DLL,RestartDialog  Restart dialog "System Settings Changed, Do you want to restart your computer now?" dialog
Win98 RUNDLL32 KRNL386.EXE,exitkernel  Poweroff Poweroff for ATX boards only, otherwise normal shutdown (3)
Win98/ME RUNDLL32 SHELL32.DLL,SHExitWindowsEx n  See Remarks n can be any combination (sum) of the following numbers: (4)
0    Logoff
1    Shutdown
2    Reboot
4    Force
8    Poweroff (if supported by the hardware)
 
Win98/ME RUNONCE.EXE -q  Reboot (4)  
NT4 See Reboot NT on my Solutions found in alt.msdos.batch page Reboot Reboot immediately
NT4 RUNDLL32 USER32.DLL,ExitWindowsEx
RUNDLL32 USER32.DLL,ExitWindowsEx  Logoff Most systems require the command to be called twice before logging off
NT+RK (1) SHUTDOWN /L /R /T:0 /Y  Reboot Immediate shutdown & reboot
NT+RK (1) SHUTDOWN /L /T:10 /Y /C  Delayed shutdown Shutdown in 10 seconds, close without saving.
Can be stopped during those 10 seconds using SHUTDOWN /A
NT (1) PSSHUTDOWN \\mynt4srv -K -F -T 20  Delayed poweroff Poweroff \\mynt4srv after a 20 seconds delay
Can be aborted using PSSHUTDOWN \\mynt4srv -A
Uses PSSHUTDOWN.EXE from SysInternal.com's PS Tools
NT (1) PSSHUTDOWN \\myw2ksrv -O -F -T 0  Logoff Immediately logoff console user on \\myw2ksrv
Uses PSSHUTDOWN.EXE from SysInternal.com's PS Tools
2000 Click here and learn how to shutdown a remote Windows 2000 computer Shutdown GUI, no command line
XP SHUTDOWN -r -t 10  Delayed reboot Reboot after a 10 seconds delay.
Can be stopped during those 10 seconds using SHUTDOWN -a
XP SHUTDOWN -s -t 01  Delayed shutdown Shutdown after a 1 second delay, NO poweroff.
TS LOGOFF 16 /SERVER:termserv1  Logoff Logoff session 16 on Terminal Server TERMSERV1.
Use the QUERY USER command to find out which session ID belongs to whom.
More Terminal Server commands here.
TS TSSHUTDN 45 /SERVER:termserv1 /POWERDOWN /DELAY:20 /V  Delayed poweroff Notify all users on Terminal Server TERMSERV1, logoff all Terminal Server sessions after 45 seconds, wait another 20 seconds, and then shut down Terminal Server TERMSERV1 and power off.
See my Terminal Server Commands page for the exact syntax.
Kix $RC = SHUTDOWN( "\\server", "Shutting down...", 10, 1, 0 )  Delayed shutdown Shutdown \\server in 10 seconds, with message, close without saving, no reboot
Kix $RC = SHUTDOWN( "\\server", "", 0, 1, 1 )  Reboot Immediate shutdown & reboot \\server, without a message
Kix $RC = LOGOFF( 1 )  Logoff Forcing applications to close.
Use 0 instead of 1 if you don't want to force applications to close
Perl InitiateSystemShutdown( $sComputer, $sMessage, $uTimeoutSecs, $bForce, $bReboot )    General syntax (ActivePerl for Windows only)
Perl InitiateSystemShutdown( "", "", 0, 1, 1 )  Reboot Immediate reboot without message, force applications to close without saving data
Perl InitiateSystemShutdown( "", "Going down...", 10, 0, 1 )  Delayed reboot Reboot after 10 seconds, with message and without forcing applications to close
Perl InitiateSystemShutdown( "10.0.1.16", "Sorry", 5, 1, 0 )  Delayed shutdown Shutdown of remote computer after 5 seconds, with message and forced closing of applications
Regina Rexx RC = W32SysShutdown( how [,force] )    General syntax (Regina Rexx for Windows with W32Funcs only).
how can be either Reboot, Logoff, Poweroff or Shutdown.
force can be either Force or Noforce.
Regina Rexx RC = W32SysShutdown( "P", "F" )  Poweroff Immediate shutdown and poweroff, forced closing of application
Regina Rexx RC = W32SysShutdown( "L", "N" )  Logoff Logoff, prompt for saving unsaved data
WSH [1] Set OpSysSet = GetObject("winmgmts:{(Shutdown)}//./root/cimv2").ExecQuery("select * from Win32_OperatingSystem where Primary=true")
[2]
[3] for each OpSys in OpSysSet
[4]     OpSys.Reboot()
[5] next  Reboot Requires WMI.
Remove [line numbers].
Found in a forum posting by Alex K. Angelopoulos on www.developersdex.com.
WSH Replace line 4 in the script above with this one:
[4]     OpSys.Shutdown()
to shut down the PC instead of rebooting it. Shutdown But no poweroff.
 
See my WSH page for examples on how to reboot or shut down remote computers too.
WSH [1] Const EWX_LOGOFF = 0
[2]
[3] Set wmi = GetObject("winmgmts:{(Shutdown)}")
[4] Set objSet = wmi.InstancesOf("Win32_OperatingSystem")
[5]
[9] For Each obj in objSet
[6]     Set os = obj
[7]     Exit For
[8] Next
[9]
[10] os.Win32Shutdown EWX_LOGOFF  Logoff Requires WMI.
Remove [line numbers].
Posted by Michael Harris on microsoft.public.scripting.vbscript.
 
My Logoff.vbs combines this code with that of the reboot and shutdown commands, and allows logoff of remote computers as well.
OS/2 START /PM SHUTDOWN && EXIT  Shutdown Will still stop and ask for confirmation if a non-PM application is active
OS/2 SETBOOT /IBD:C:  Reboot Unconditional shutdown & reboot
OS/2 SETBOOT /IBA:nonsense  Shutdown Unconditional shutdown & failing reboot.
Needs Boot Manager installed.
Will reboot, no questions asked, and then stop if nonsense is an invalid Boot Manager menu entry (which, in this case, is exactly what we want).
OS/2 LOGOFF  Logoff Both LAN Server client and Peer

 

 
Notes:   1   DOS    MS-DOS or PC-DOS
 Win31*  Windows 3.1, 3.11 or 3.11 for Workgroups
 Win9*  Windows 95 or 98
 Win98  Windows 98
 Win98/ME  Windows 98 or Windows Millennium Edition (ME)
 NT4  Windows NT 4 (not Windows 2000)
 NT  Windows NT 4 or Windows 2000
 NT+RK  Windows NT 4 or Windows 2000 with the appropriate Resource Kit
 2000  Windows 2000
 XP  Windows XP
 TS  Windows NT 4 Terminal Server Edition or Windows 2000 (Advanced) Server with Terminal Server installed
 Kix  Windows (any) with KiXtart
 Perl  Windows (any) with ActivePerl
 Regina Rexx  Windows (any) with Regina Rexx and W32Funcs
 WSH  Windows Script Host
 OS/2  OS/2 Warp 3 and 4, LAN Server and Warp Server
 2 Thanks for Bill James and Tom Lavedas, for the information on RUNDLL.
Find more RUNDLL examples I collected on my RUNDLL page.
 3 Thanks for Sasha Predii for posting this information on www.diskovod.ru.
Find more RUNDLL examples I collected on my RUNDLL page.
 4 See article Q234216 in the Microsoft Knowledge base for more information.
Thanks for Alec Soroudi for pointing out this information.
Windows NT also has a RUNONCE.EXE, but I am not sure what its purpose is -- RUNONCE.EXE -q does not shut down NT.


(Win 98/ME)

C:\WINDOWS\RUNDLL32 SHELL32.DLL,SHExitWindowsEx n

Where n is one of the following values, depending on the task you want to accomplish:

n=0 LOGOFF: Shuts down all running processes, logs the user off, then restarts the Windows shell. (Same as Logoff on the Start Menu.)
n=1 SHUTDOWN: Shuts down the system to a point at which it is safe to turn off the power. All file buffers have been flushed to disk, and all running processes have stopped.
n=2 REBOOT: Shuts down the system, then restarts it. (Same as Start Menu | Shutdown | Restart.)
n=4 FORCE: Forces all processes to terminate — in effect, shuts down all running programs. When this flag is set, Windows does not query running applications to inform them that Windows is shutting down. This can cause the applications to lose data, therefore, you should only use this flag in an emergency.
n=8 POWEROFF: Exits Windows, then turns off the computer’s power (provided the computer supports the power-off feature).
n=-1 RESTART EXPLORER: Quickly closes Explorer (i.e., the Windows desktop), then lets it restore itself.

thats a lot of info and kinda confusing to me. Do I just copy and paste the text into a txt file and rename .bat Im not too sure which is code and which isnt. Sorry if im wasting your time but im new to bat files.

windows xp already got it:

command line: shutdown                   - shutdown computer
command line: shutdown -r                - reboot computer

On Win9x systems try this:

Create a file in notepad named Shutdown.bat and have this line only in it.

@exit

save and run it. It should shutdown your system.

Again,

You could try this too and it should work as well:

You can use either of the following commands in a batch file to restart Windows 98 automatically:

runonce.exe -q

rundll32.exe shell32.dll,SHExitWindowsEx n

where n is one, or a combination of, the following numbers:

0 - LOGOFF

1 - SHUTDOWN

2 - REBOOT

4 - FORCE

8 - POWEROFF

The above options can be combined into one value to achieve different results. For example, to restart Windows forcefully, without querying any running programs, use the following command line:

rundll32.exe shell32.dll,SHExitWindowsEx 6

NOTE: Using the FORCE option can cause programs to lose data.


this is somewhat udosoft  suggested too, but its lost in all the other technical information :)

But i got it from here :

http://www.geocities.com/~budallen/batfiles.html#Exit%20Windows%2098%20Automatically%20Using%20a%20Batch

steroyle, instead of just complaining about it bieng confusing, TELL US what is your OS!!! then we can just give you the code that applies to your particular case. until then, we can't answer to your question in a less confusing manner.

georgir dont cry, like i said im sorry if im wasting anyones time. I dont spend my life reading these forums!

Thanks udosoft it worked a treat!

I want to write a program in c++ that it can shutdown computer .
HELP ME

Just use rundll32.exe shell32.dll,SHExitWindowsEx 8

in a batch file on winxp you can do this with more options!!!!

Such as
remote shutdown - shutdown computers on the network - graphical interface - shutdown /i
timed shutdown   - shutdown /t xx seconds
full list is available in win xp and 2000 by opening cmd and putting in shutdown /?

here is the easy way:

1. Create a shortcut to C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM32\SHUTDOWN.EXE
2. Right click the shortcut, then click properties.
3. Add -s to the end of the text in the 'target:' textbox
4. Click ok
5. Run it and the countdown should begin.

you can easily execute this with your application... Look up more on this about how to get rid of the countdown