How Can I Get My PC to Boot at a Scheduled Time?
PCWorld writes: “If you can arrange for your computer to boot at a scheduled time, you can shut it down at the end of the workday and then come back to a freshly booted PC the next morning–or even to a freshly booted PC that has just completed a virus scan.”
Your PC’s setup program may let you schedule a boot. To find out, start your computer and watch the screen. Before Windows loads, a message will tell you which key to press to enter Setup. Once the program has loaded, search its menus for an appropriately named option.
If the option isn’t there, consider using Windows’ Scheduled Tasks tool to establish a regular wake-up call for your system. This call will rouse your PC from hibernation or standby mode (called sleep in Vista), but not if the machine is fully shut down.
You’ll find the Task Scheduler inside the Start menu’s System Tools submenu; to get there, select All Programs, Accessories, System Tools. Creating a new task is easy and obvious. To make any task a wake-up task, check the Wake the computer to run this task option. In XP, that option resides in the Settings tab of the task’s Properties dialog box. In Vista, it’s on the Conditions tab. Scheduled Tasks won’t work in XP unless you have a log-on password.
