Automatic Shutdown of Windows PCs

Hi guys,

What's the current state-of-the-art for automatically shutting down an HMI PC ?

Windows CE and Windows Embedded have very good corruption prevention, but I've been presented with a machine that doesn't have a UPS and runs a full Windows 7 Professional all-in-one PC.

My current policy during shop testing is to include a Shutdown button for the HMI software (Indusoft Web Studio), then use the touchscreen and the Windows Start button to do a full shutdown of the Windows computer.

Operators and installers are unlikely to be as gentle with it as I am.

Do you use that approach, or do you try to have the HMI software issue a shutdown command to Windows so there's just one step ?

Or do you insist on a UPS with a PC data connection and software utility like APC Powerchute ?

Or do you just open the disconnect and hope for the best ?

I have seen it done several ways... I think you need to do it automatic as much as possible, W7 needs to reboot a lot and install updates

I just read about W9 and it looks better then 8.1, I think its best to skip 8 like Vista

The last one I worked on they ran a task manager shut down/reboot once a month, this HMI was just watching a process not really controlling anything

I've not really had much issue with full Win7 installs and corruption, but (and with MS there usually is a 'but' in there) one thing that can happen is the instance where power is interrupted during initial boot. On those occasions the default it to run Startup Repair. Then you need to connect a keyboard and select a different option from the menu.

To have it ignore errors and try to start normally:

For any serious problems with corruption, I'll keep an image of the drive (made with Clonezilla) handy and restore the image. Usually, the 5-10 minutes to restore the image is quicker that trying to repair a corrupted driver.

Ken

IMO it's best to have a UPS with software to do a safe shutdown but if thats not an option I use this http://damianpasternak.w.interia.pl/en/programs/sds_home.htm

I have been using it for several years and it works well. Very simple application. You can shutdown based on teime /date or when a specific application is closed.

It's freeware.

Thanks for the suggestions and comments, guys.

Making a clone of the HDD when we deliver the machine always seems to fall to the bottom of the task list, but it ought to be higher. On this machine, it will be !