How To Create A Reminder or Popup on Shutdown

RickC said:

If you have a Pro edition of Windows 10 then there's a simple method. You can configure Local Group Policy to run a Shutdown script to popup a message instead of using Task Scheduler. It's a little bit long-winded (about 10 steps within the Microsoft Management Console) but you only need to do it once and is the 'Microsoft way' of doing this.

Rick,

I do not have Pro.

Does the policy setting you describe create a Task scheduler task [which I'd expect to be in the TS sub-folder Event viewer tasks]?
That's how other Event viewer triggers are implemented - "Attach Task to this Custom view".
If so, would you mind posting its .xml task definition. I'd like to see which of the many shutdown events it's latching onto because it's probably the most appropriate one for me to use if I ever have a similar need.
It's the <Subscription> field.

That definition can also be accessed through the UI:-
TS,
Event viewer tasks,
{selected task},
Properties,
Triggers,
Edit,
Edit Event filter,
XML tab.




Chris,

I thought you wanted some big red diagram instead of a neat vbs MsgBox.
If the expectation expressed in my question to Chris is correct, you'd be able to implement it in Home just as well as in Pro.

You do realise that the MsgBox he used as his example normally stays onscreen forever?
It will take experimentation to find out if the shutdown process overrides it {i.e. closes the MsgBox} and continues anyway. I suspect that it will not override it but do not know that.
Variations of MsgBox ["Popup" MsgBoxes] can be designed to stay onscreen for specific periods so you'd need to decide what you wanted [assuming my expectation is correct].


All the best,
Denis

Try3 said:

Does the policy setting you describe create a Task scheduler task [which I'd expect to be in the TS sub-folder Event viewer tasks]?

Hi Denis,

No, it's nothing to do with Task Scheduler. Instead I believe the shutdown script method is an event-driven hook to shutdown.exe that causes shutdown.exe to suspend execution until the shutdown script terminates. The script itself can be BAT, vbscript, jscript and/or PowerShell.

Unfortunately Microsoft documentation now appears sparce and becoming even less, but have a look at Working with startup, shutdown, logon, and logoff scripts using the Local Group Policy Editor for more info. It's old (Windows 7) but I haven't been able to find any more recent Microsoft documentation.

Martin Brinkman also has some good info in the ghacks.net Back to Basics: Windows Shutdown Autostart explained article. It's about Windows 8 but the methodology hasn't changed.

Before I retired we used to use Local Group Policy startup and shutdown scripts all the time for roving laptops that were never connected to the corporate network. Once configured the scripts appeared more resilient than using Task Scheduler... and easier to set up quickly. Another advantage was that they ran in the Local System context (i.e. machine-wide) so were triggered irrespective of who logged on. The caveat of course is that none of our devices were running Home editions, which is why I have no experience... nor any means to test.

Hope this helps...

Rick,

The reason I had thought/hoped it might be in that TS sub-folder was because that's how Windows implements EventViewer-set tasks.
Oh, well.


Chris,

This leaves you floundering around trying to pick an Event to try to latch any MsgBox / popup notice to.
I explained how I would look for them in my post #8.
Choosing which to use as a trigger for a MsgBox / popup notice would have to be deduced from rather repetitive experimentation that might, ultimately, be unsuccessful.

All the best,
Denis

I can help with the Event viewer work, the TS task and the script that TS will run.
but
I do not know which of the various events during shutdown is the best one to latch on to as explained in my post #8.
EventID 1074 is one of the events that happens during shutdown [for Home, Pro, also for Win11] so I imagine you will want to use that for your first experiment.


You will need to set the chosen event in Event viewer as a Custom view then attach a task to it [which it actually sets up in Task scheduler, Task scheduler library, Event viewer tasks].
- I have some notes about attaching tasks
- - 1 Set up a Custom view for that EventID - example my posts in Set up an EventViewer-triggered task in TS - ElevenForum
- - 2 Use "Attach task to this Custom view"
- - 3 I suggest that you start off by just telling TS to run notepad.exe as the task so you can test that you've set up the attaching task bit correctly. You'll then edit the task directly in TS.
I know you'll have lots of questions. Once you've done this a few times you'll regard it as straightforward but it all seems weird the first time.


I can help with the real task.
- paste this into Notepad and save it as WhateverYouWant.vbs You can then double-click on it to run it manually to test it, it is benign as it just displays a message.

Code:

ThePrompt = "Here it is the prompt, do whatever you want"
TheTitle = "Here is the shutdown warning message"
TheButtons = 48
ReturnValue = MsgBox(ThePrompt, TheButtons, TheTitle)

- Then, in TS, go to the Task scheduler, Task scheduler library, Event viewer tasks subfolder [the left-hand pane expands just like expanding folders in File explorer]
- Double-click on the task to open its properties and select the Actions tab.
- Overwrite your initial Notepad.exe example with

Program/Script: wscript.exe
Add arguments (optional): C:\Tools\ShutdownStuff\WhateverYouWant.vbs
{use the path to the folder where you've put it in place of my C:\Tools\ShutdownStuff}
{I will nag you later about suitable places to store the vbs when you've finished testing it.}
{Use whatever you have called the vbs file in place of my WhateverYouWant.vbs.}

then click on various OK buttons to finish.
You can now right-click on the task & select Run to test that the task has been set up correctly.

Then the real test, shutdown to see what happens.


Then