In case you forget your PC turned on after exiting, or if you forget your laptop somewhere, it can be useful to know how to turn it off or lock it remotely.
We divide this article into two parts, one to talk about a Windows 10 feature that allows you to easily lock your PC remotely, so that you can protect it if it is left open and prevent the curious from being able to use it.
The other part to talk about how to turn off the PC with an Email using a Microsoft Outlook feature that allows, if configured to receive email on the PC, to receive Email with shutdown command.
READ ALSO: Turn on, use and turn off the PC from the smartphone
1) Lock your PC remotely with Windows 10
In more recent versions of Windows 10 one of the most useful smartphone functions has been added, that of the "Find device" which allows you to locate your computer when it is lost or stolen.
The same service can therefore be used both to erase PC data remotely as already seen, and to lock the computer so that no one can use or spy on it, as we see now.
To work, remote locking of the PC requires that the computer is connected to the internet, that the "find my device" function is enabled and that the user account used in Windows 10 has administrator privileges and is a Microsoft account.
To activate the Find my device functions, just go to Settings> Update and security> TRove my device .
In the right section you have to activate the switch by pressing on Modify.
Further down there is the link to click to access the location functions, which are available on a web page of the Microsoft site and, precisely, on the account.microsoft.com/devices site.
Before logging in, you are asked to enter your Microsoft account password.
From the main page, press the " Show details " link, at the top right, under the name of the computer to be blocked.
On the next page, click on " Find my device ".
After the map is loaded, you can here press the " Lock " button to lock the computer.
The remote lockout command disconnects all active users and disables local user accounts making the PC no longer usable except for the owner's Microsoft account.
Go ahead and write, optionally, a personalized message, useful in case the PC has been lost, which gives indications to return the laptop to us.
The message will be displayed on the device lock screen when someone turns on the PC.
At the end, press on Block.
In the event that your PC has been stolen, it will also be helpful to change your Microsoft account password to make sure no one can use it.
2) Switch off the PC remotely
To turn off the computer remotely, you can use an email sent to your email address.
This trick requires you to use the Office program Microsoft Outlook and configure it by activating the option that allows you to start applications from received emails.
Obviously the computer must be connected to the internet and ready to receive e-mails on Outlook.
This procedure works in Windows 10 and also in Windows 7 and Windows 8.
If the requirements are met, the configuration is fairly simple.
Open Windows Notepad first and write the line
% systemroot% \ system32 \ shutdown.exe -s -t 0
Save the file with the name Shutdown.bat (not .txt) inside the folder C: \
Then open Microsoft Outlook and create a new rule.
From the Home section, go to Rules and then to Manage rules and alerts .
Then create a New Rule and in the wizard make sure that the " Apply rule on messages I receive " option is selected
Next, mark the following conditions :
- Specific account : choose which account the rule applies to.
- Sent only to me - The reason is to limit the trigger of the email rule based on the list of recipients.
- With specific words in the subject, so that the email is better identified.
- With specific words in the body, to give a more stringent constraint and not be turned off the PC for a wrong email.
- Only on this computer
Go ahead and choose the word that, if present in the email, turns off the PC.
For example, you can use the word " Shutdown " in the subject and then the phrase " shut down my computer " in the body of the message.
The last step is to choose the application to start.
Among the actions, activate both the option to start an application and the option to delete it, in order not to create a loop.
When choosing an app, select the Shutdown.bat file created earlier.
Name the rule and save it.
At this point, every time you receive a message with the subject of Shutdown and body of the message as marked in the conditions of the rule, Outlook will be able to start the .bat file that starts the shutdown procedure of the computer.
The message can be sent from any other computer or mobile phone.
In conclusion, remember that there are also other ways to turn off the computer remotely or lock it remotely .
Each remote desktop program, in fact, allows you to do it and if we do not want to install additional software, we could also just use the Google Chrome remote control function via the internet, explained in another post.
We divide this article into two parts, one to talk about a Windows 10 feature that allows you to easily lock your PC remotely, so that you can protect it if it is left open and prevent the curious from being able to use it.
The other part to talk about how to turn off the PC with an Email using a Microsoft Outlook feature that allows, if configured to receive email on the PC, to receive Email with shutdown command.
READ ALSO: Turn on, use and turn off the PC from the smartphone
1) Lock your PC remotely with Windows 10
In more recent versions of Windows 10 one of the most useful smartphone functions has been added, that of the "Find device" which allows you to locate your computer when it is lost or stolen.
The same service can therefore be used both to erase PC data remotely as already seen, and to lock the computer so that no one can use or spy on it, as we see now.
To work, remote locking of the PC requires that the computer is connected to the internet, that the "find my device" function is enabled and that the user account used in Windows 10 has administrator privileges and is a Microsoft account.
To activate the Find my device functions, just go to Settings> Update and security> TRove my device .
In the right section you have to activate the switch by pressing on Modify.
Further down there is the link to click to access the location functions, which are available on a web page of the Microsoft site and, precisely, on the account.microsoft.com/devices site.
Before logging in, you are asked to enter your Microsoft account password.
From the main page, press the " Show details " link, at the top right, under the name of the computer to be blocked.
On the next page, click on " Find my device ".
After the map is loaded, you can here press the " Lock " button to lock the computer.
The remote lockout command disconnects all active users and disables local user accounts making the PC no longer usable except for the owner's Microsoft account.
Go ahead and write, optionally, a personalized message, useful in case the PC has been lost, which gives indications to return the laptop to us.
The message will be displayed on the device lock screen when someone turns on the PC.
At the end, press on Block.
In the event that your PC has been stolen, it will also be helpful to change your Microsoft account password to make sure no one can use it.
2) Switch off the PC remotely
To turn off the computer remotely, you can use an email sent to your email address.
This trick requires you to use the Office program Microsoft Outlook and configure it by activating the option that allows you to start applications from received emails.
Obviously the computer must be connected to the internet and ready to receive e-mails on Outlook.
This procedure works in Windows 10 and also in Windows 7 and Windows 8.
If the requirements are met, the configuration is fairly simple.
Open Windows Notepad first and write the line
% systemroot% \ system32 \ shutdown.exe -s -t 0
Save the file with the name Shutdown.bat (not .txt) inside the folder C: \
Then open Microsoft Outlook and create a new rule.
From the Home section, go to Rules and then to Manage rules and alerts .
Then create a New Rule and in the wizard make sure that the " Apply rule on messages I receive " option is selected
Next, mark the following conditions :
- Specific account : choose which account the rule applies to.
- Sent only to me - The reason is to limit the trigger of the email rule based on the list of recipients.
- With specific words in the subject, so that the email is better identified.
- With specific words in the body, to give a more stringent constraint and not be turned off the PC for a wrong email.
- Only on this computer
Go ahead and choose the word that, if present in the email, turns off the PC.
For example, you can use the word " Shutdown " in the subject and then the phrase " shut down my computer " in the body of the message.
The last step is to choose the application to start.
Among the actions, activate both the option to start an application and the option to delete it, in order not to create a loop.
When choosing an app, select the Shutdown.bat file created earlier.
Name the rule and save it.
At this point, every time you receive a message with the subject of Shutdown and body of the message as marked in the conditions of the rule, Outlook will be able to start the .bat file that starts the shutdown procedure of the computer.
The message can be sent from any other computer or mobile phone.
In conclusion, remember that there are also other ways to turn off the computer remotely or lock it remotely .
Each remote desktop program, in fact, allows you to do it and if we do not want to install additional software, we could also just use the Google Chrome remote control function via the internet, explained in another post.
