Well, despite its ridiculous current low and once again misleading rating, I consider this GAOTD a keeper, for 3 main reasons:

1. bcs it gives you the ability to START your PC at a given time, a feature missing in almost any paid/free app I'm aware of..

2. bcs of its powerful scheduling and reminder function, enabling you to set up a new TASK (power-on, stand by, restart, hibernate, shut down, log off, close monitor, lock session, program launch, keyboard macro etc...) that may occur daily, weekly, monthly or even annually.

3. bcs of its ability to bypass the annoying Windows login screen, once providing an user password, so as to allow your PC to start at any time you need to.

2 THUMBS UP from me!!

BEST FREE ALTERNATIVES

http://websd-metallosoftcom.webs.com/shut-it
http://www.softpedia.com/get/System/Launchers-Shutdown-Tools/Bluesend-AutoOff.shtml
http://www.starcodec.com/en/autooff/

And to PREVENT your system shutdown, standby, hibernate, turn off and/or restart:

http://www.softwareok.com/?seite=Microsoft/DontSleep

Enjoy!! ^_^

Giovanni  –  12 years ago  –  Βρήκατε αυτό το σχόλιο χρήσιμο? ναι | όχι (+171)

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Installed and registered without problems on a Win 8.1 Pro 64 bit system.

A company without name and address. The software on the market since 2005.

And yes, real awards with links to the award websites. Not every award is an award...

A resizable window opens, a complete task planer is incorporated. You can (as the name suggests) power off/on, sleep, lock or hibernate your computer. You can syncronise your clock with an internet "atomic" time server - and you can define your tasks.

Which task, when to start, what to do. Think of recording TV shows, if you don't have a program, which has this feature built in and the most important :

With Auto Power-on & Shut-down, you can have more fun in your life

Wow! That' something, this is even a bargain for $24,95. I normally pay more to have fun in my life...

Back to the software.

It makes a good impression. A version 2.82, released 03/12/2014, where on Feb 7 , 2005 Auto Power-on & Shut-down 1.44 is released, gives much more confidence than programs with the version 7.3.6.9, where the first version 5.1 was released some month ago.

The program does what it claims. Read the comments to the awards!

I will keep this, to see, if I have more fun in my life. If not, it will be uninstalled. I don't need a program, which is already running before I enter the office.

Karl  –  12 years ago  –  Βρήκατε αυτό το σχόλιο χρήσιμο? ναι | όχι (+105)

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I've used Hibernate and auto-startup before and run into two difficulties. One is the computer, especially a desktop, waking on it's own. This program doesn't seem to have any way to find what could be causing those issues. This is the biggest problem one has with using sleep and hibernate.

The other is that no program can start a computer when it's been fully shut down. This program doesn't startup the computer but rather just wakes it from sleep or hibernation. Many laptops may look like they're shutdown when they're only in sleep mode. But when a computer is fully shut down there's no way a program can start it up.

It's easy enough to setup wake and sleep/hibernation commands in the Windows Task menu. Really all this program does is to make it a little easier to change a few Windows settings that one can do on their own for free. And many of the menus the program brings up are Windows menus for the settings.

Patrick McNamara  –  12 years ago  –  Βρήκατε αυτό το σχόλιο χρήσιμο? ναι | όχι (+24)

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@giovanni and all

as far as I could see (or am I blind?), your as "best" mentioned free alternatives are just for shut down (crude spoken)...
For THAT there are flying tons of free programs around - some almost garbage, some designed well; but the basics of this could also be done by any automation tool (AHK, AUtoIt ...) or taskplaners.

What I can suggest:
1. Free AND works well: "WOSB" (if your computer supports ACPI settings in BIOS, which most mainboards do since many years)
http://www.dennisbabkin.com/wosb/

2. (not tested thorougly by me yet...) "Task Wizard":
https://www.ascomp.de/de/products/show/product/taskwizard/tab/details

my 2 cents
cheers

wosa  –  12 years ago  –  Βρήκατε αυτό το σχόλιο χρήσιμο? ναι | όχι (+21)

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Not reliable - in some cases it didn't work at all. Macros were not executed. Programs were not closed. Instead 'WinScheduler.exe' ate 100% processor time of one core while doing nothing. Too risky for me to have this tool running unattended.

A similar program: Xecutor
http://www.xpertdesign.de/xecutor

Free for non-commercial use and perfectly working. English and german interface.

Have this thing running for 15 years. It's not updated to Win7/8, but in case a command (e.g. Hibernate) won't work, one can enter the appropriate command as a program.

Hermann  –  12 years ago  –  Βρήκατε αυτό το σχόλιο χρήσιμο? ναι | όχι (+15)

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