PC Timer

Some people like to listen to a podcast or something similar when they go to sleep, which involves leaving the computer running overnight. Although modern computers aren't too affected if you leave them running for a long time, you may not feel comfortable doing that, especially if you think about your electricity bill. The simplest solution is to get an auto-shutdown utility like PC Timer. This application lets you schedule automatic shutdowns and other power actions at a moment's notice, with nothing more than a few clicks.

PC Timer is a .NET-based application, so you will need to have the .NET framework installed on your computer. It comes as a single executable, so you don't have to go through an installation process. You can just download it and run it right away, without any distractions.

You can specify how long the application should wait, by setting a number of hours, minutes and seconds on its compact user interface. You can also decide to shut down the computer, restart it or log off the current user, once the timer expires. With the timer set and the action selected, you only need to click a Start button, and the timer will start.

Once you hit the Start button, the application will display a countdown in seconds, as well as a progress bar that fills up as time runs out. You can cancel the countdown at any time with a single click. What's more, if you want to make sure that no one will interfere and cancel your timer, you can set up a password before starting the countdown. This will make the Cancel button useless unless the correct password is provided.

If you want your computer to shut down while you are away or asleep, PC Timer can take care of it without asking for too much input.