Ever needed to make a PC Shutdown, Reboot, Hibernate, … after running some code?

As with most things, there are a number of possible approaches, but today I thought I’d demonstrate a very simple solution using the Shutdown command:

shutdown

Reference article for the shutdown command, which enables you to shut down or restart local or remote computers, one at a time.

Below are a few simple procedures to do individual actions:
 

Logoff

Public Function PC_LogOff() As Boolean
    Dim vRetVal               As Variant

    vRetVal = Shell("shutdown /l /f")
    If vRetVal <> 0 Then PC_LogOff = True
End Function

Hibernate

Public Function PC_Hibernate() As Boolean
    Dim vRetVal               As Variant

    vRetVal = Shell("shutdown /h")
    If vRetVal <> 0 Then PC_Hibernate = True
End Function

Restart

Public Function PC_Restart() As Boolean
    Dim vRetVal               As Variant

    vRetVal = Shell("shutdown /r /f")
    If vRetVal <> 0 Then PC_Restart = True
End Function

Shutdown

Public Function PC_Shutdown() As Boolean
    Dim vRetVal               As Variant

    vRetVal = Shell("shutdown /s /f")
    If vRetVal <> 0 Then PC_Shutdown = True
End Function

One Function to Rule Them All

Knowing the above, we could always combine things into a single versatile function like:

Enum PC_ShutdownCommand
    Shutdown_LogOff = 1
    Shutdown_Hibernate = 2 'has to be enabled on the system to work!
    Shutdown_Restart = 3
    Shutdown_Shutdown = 4
End Enum


'---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
' Procedure : PC_Shutdown2
' Author    : Daniel Pineault, CARDA Consultants Inc.
' Website   : http://www.cardaconsultants.com
' Purpose   : Initiate one of the Shutdown commands (hybernate, restart, shutdown, logoff)
' Copyright : The following is release as Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International
'             (CC BY-SA 4.0) - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/
' Req'd Refs: Late Binding  -> None required
' References:
'   https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-server/administration/windows-commands/shutdown
'
' Input Variables:
' ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
' lCmd      : PC_ShutdownCommand Enum value of the command to issue
'
' Usage:
' ~~~~~~
' PC_Shutdown2(Shutdown_Hibernate)
'   Returns -> True  is successful
'              False is the command couldn't be executed for some reason
'
' Revision History:
' Rev       Date(yyyy-mm-dd)        Description
' **************************************************************************************
' 1         2024-04-13              Initial Release
'                                   Added Procedure header and error handler
'---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Function PC_Shutdown2(lCmd As PC_ShutdownCommand) As Boolean
    On Error GoTo Error_Handler
    Dim sCmd                  As String
    Dim vRetVal As Variant

    Select Case lCmd
        Case Shutdown_LogOff
            sCmd = "/l /f"
        Case Shutdown_Hibernate
            sCmd = "/h"
        Case Shutdown_Restart
            sCmd = " /r /f"
        Case Shutdown_Shutdown
            sCmd = "/s /f"
    End Select

    If sCmd <> "" Then
        vRetVal = Shell("shutdown " & sCmd)
        If vRetVal <> 0 Then PC_Shutdown2 = True
    End If

Error_Handler_Exit:
    On Error Resume Next
    Exit Function

Error_Handler:
    MsgBox "The following error has occurred" & vbCrLf & vbCrLf & _
           "Error Source: PC_Shutdown2" & vbCrLf & _
           "Error Number: " & Err.Number & vbCrLf & _
           "Error Description: " & Err.Description & _
           Switch(Erl = 0, "", Erl <> 0, vbCrLf & "Line No: " & Erl) _
           , vbOKOnly + vbCritical, "An Error has Occurred!"
    Resume Error_Handler_Exit
End Function

More Options

Do note that the Shutdown command offers a multitude of parameters. In my examples I have kept things very simple, but you can easily add delays, reboot into options menu, …

So use this as a starting point and feel free to take things further to meet your project needs.