Reboot Windows 10 PC remotely

Reboot Windows 10 PC remotely

Here are some potential considerations for this task:

  1. You should have someone with physical access reboot the machine for you that is there physically in case there's a boot issue and you cannot access it otherwise remotely.

  2. You can run the SHUTDOWN -m \\<PCName> -r -f (or SHUTDOWN -m \\<IPAddress> -r -f) to force a reboot remotely.

    Note: If you are in another domain or with a different user you can use:

    runas /netonly /user:domain\username "cmd /c shutdown -m \\ipaddress -r -f"

    • You'll want to do this from another machine that can access this with appropriate permissions to run this command.
    • I usually do a PING -t <PCName> right after this until it starts responding, give it a few for things to fully start, then RDP, etc.
    • If it hoses up during the reboot, you may need to get someone to hard boot it, or take the dreaded drive anyway.

Further Resources

  • Shutdown

Use Alt-F4 from the remote machine's desktop.

That brings up a "Shut Down Windows" window with a combo box for the different shutdown options (Disconnect, Sign Out, Sleep, Shut Down, and Restart). If you use Alt-F4 with an application open, it shuts down that application.