Windows 8.1 shutdown does not work for log-off

Question

I am experiencing the following issue on my Windows 8.1 laptop. When I go to cmd and type

shutdown -s -t 60

then it works fine and message about planned shutdown is displayed.

However, if I type

shutdown -l -t 60

then it just displays the shutdown command help menu and nothing else. I tried to log-off from cmd using shutdown on two other PCs (Windows 7, Windows Server 2012), and the same problem occurs. Any ideas?

Answer 1

It's because -t is "the time-out period before shutdown" and -l is logoff. Since you are logging off (with -l) instead of shutting down, -t is not valid, and so the help is shown to you.

The help just doesn't mention that.

Perhaps check out this related SU question for some ideas on implementing a delay before logoff:

• Windows 7 Command Line Timed Log Off