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shutdown.exe problems

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by clickhappy

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I have recently installed a digital PA system for one of our customers. Each access point has a tablet pc (win XP)to run the PA software that allows you to select a broadcast pattern. I have a server running SBS 2000 that is acting as a domain controller for the tablet pc's.

The problem I have is that when one of the nodes is connected to another node, no other locations can connect to that node. So if somebody accidentally left a connection open, it would shut everybody else out. I had to figure out a way to over-ride it. That is where shutdown.exe comes in.

The PA software will not shutdown with this utility unless I use the FORCE switch because a dialog window pops-up. But if I force it while its connected, it completely loses its mind, and I have to re-configure the software. I've used both the psshutdown.exe and the shutdown.exe utilities with the same results

I bought the Windows 2000 server Resource Kit specifically for shutdown.exe. The reason for this is that somewhere I read that shutdown.exe had a /y switch that answers "yes" to all dialog boxes that pop-up. This would allow the program to shutdown gracefully and not lose its mind. Unfortunately, this information was false because the shutdown.exe in the Resource Kit I bought did not contain that parameter (very frustrating).

Anywayz, does anybody know where I can get the correct utility? Or maybe a suggestion of another way to do it?

Thanks,

Matt Perry

8 replies

by yetanotheradmin

Tricky, have you tried pskill instead of psshutdown, I'm guessing it'll produce the same result but it might be worth a try.

by clickhappy

Pskill does the same thing. Is there a way to remotely execute a macro from the command line? I don't know, just a thought.

by clickhappy

Remote control would work, but it would take too much time. Also, you would have no way of knowing which computer was connected to the node you wanted to connect to. You would have to go into each computer and check. The reason I liked the idea of shutdown.exe is that I could make a batch file, that, when executed, would shut down every other computer in the network.

This system may be used in an emergency, so the override has to be fairly simple

by clickhappy

I figured out a solution. I used a freeware program called AutoHotKeys to record a macro of me shutting down the program. Then, I converted the macro file to an ".EXE" file and put it into the root directory. Then, I used psexec.exe to remotely execute the file. It worked beautifully, shutting down the program gracefully.

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