Process of Shutdown.exe with multiple arguments, not working

Question

I want to create a process which uses shutdown.exe to shut down the computer after a given time.

Here is my code:

ProcessStartInfo startInfo = new ProcessStartInfo();
startInfo.CreateNoWindow = false;
startInfo.UseShellExecute = false;
startInfo.WindowStyle = ProcessWindowStyle.Hidden;
startInfo.FileName = "shutdown.exe";
startInfo.Arguments = "–s –f –t " + seconds;
Process.Start(startInfo);

Where seconds is an int local variable, the user decides.

When i run my code nothing happens. But when i manually go in cmd prompt and type:
shutdown.exe - s -f -t 999
then Windows will make a popup and tell me that the system will shutdown in 16 mins.

The reason i think it's because of the multiple arguments, is that my method to abort the ongoing system shutdown works(where i created the systemshutdown manually from cmd prompt). This is almost the same, except at startInfo.Argument:

ProcessStartInfo startInfo = new ProcessStartInfo();
startInfo.CreateNoWindow = false;
startInfo.UseShellExecute = false;
startInfo.WindowStyle = ProcessWindowStyle.Hidden;
startInfo.FileName = "shutdown.exe";
startInfo.Arguments = "-a";
Process.Start(startInfo);

Does your machine actually shutdown after 16 minutes with the multiple arguments? Have you tried it with seconds = 1? The reason I ask is that I wonder if the fact that you're setting the WindowStyle to Hidden has any bearing? — JohnL, Jan 18 '12 at 18:29
Probably useless thought here, but not knowing anything about your executable file, what happens if you specify `UseShellExecute = true`? — Kevin Stricker, Jan 18 '12 at 18:31
Still nothing happens i when change the code to this: startInfo.Arguments = "–s –f –t 1"; I know there is something wrong, because i can see the cmd prompt shortly, where it shows like the command isnt typed properly. I managed to get a screenshot of it: [link](http://img215.imageshack.us/img215/8954/shutdowntimer.png) — Toby, Jan 18 '12 at 18:32
In that case, I'd recommend trying to capture the output as with @ambrus' answer and seeing what the output is. — JohnL, Jan 18 '12 at 18:35
The first code snippet has unicode dashes instead of genuine ascii dashes. — David, Jul 06 '21 at 16:11

ambrus · Accepted Answer · 2012-01-18T18:38:16.290

A quick inspection of shutdown.exe's usage message reveals that it expects option arguments following slashes ('/') not dashes ('-').

Replacing the line:

        startInfo.Arguments = "–s –f –t " + seconds;

With:

        startInfo.Arguments = "/s /f /t " + seconds;

Yields a working result on my box with C# express 2010.

Also, you can redirect standard error and standard out of the started process to be read by your program, such that you can tell what happened after it ran. To do this, you can store the Process object and wait for the underlying process to exit so that you can check if everything went well.

        startInfo.RedirectStandardOutput = true;
        startInfo.RedirectStandardError = true;

        Process p = Process.Start(startInfo);
        string outstring = p.StandardOutput.ReadToEnd();
        string errstring = p.StandardError.ReadToEnd();
        p.WaitForExit();

Unfortunately, I can't tell you why the command line version accepts 'dash' prefixes on the options and the C# executed version doesn't. However, hopefully what you're after is a working solution.

The full listing of code below:

        int seconds = 100;
        ProcessStartInfo startInfo = new ProcessStartInfo();
        startInfo.CreateNoWindow = false;
        startInfo.UseShellExecute = false;
        startInfo.WindowStyle = ProcessWindowStyle.Hidden;
        startInfo.FileName = "shutdown.exe";
        startInfo.Arguments = "/s /f /t " + seconds;
        startInfo.RedirectStandardOutput = true;
        startInfo.RedirectStandardError = true;
        Process p = Process.Start(startInfo);
        string outstring = p.StandardOutput.ReadToEnd();
        string errstring = p.StandardError.ReadToEnd();
        p.WaitForExit();

+1 Though I'm sure `-` works just as well as `/` in this case. (Assuming that cmd.exe doesn't convert - to /, which would be odd.) — Kevin Stricker, Jan 18 '12 at 18:35
Thank you very much. I didnt get that message because the cmd prompt window disappeared almost instantly, and the help is so long i could not capture the message in a screen shot. That output and error handling you showed there is very nice, thank you again. — Toby, Jan 18 '12 at 18:40
doesnt work for me. the process starts so often so quickly that it crashes. any ideas? — Manticore, Jan 22 '15 at 20:34

Process of Shutdown.exe with multiple arguments, not working

1 Answers1