HOWTO: Restart remote computer


There will be times as a Windows Administrator that you will need to restart remote computer or server.
In this tutorial, I’ll show you two easy methods for rebooting remote computers.


1. Open command prompt:

   - Open Start menu, type Command prompt or cmd

2. Input following command to restart computer:

   - By default, this will prompt the remote computer and give it about a minute before it restarts:
shutdown /r /m \\your_computer_name
The pop up below is what a Windows 10 system will display.

3. Restart With a Custom Message:

   - You may want to display a custom message to the logged on users, to do that just use the /c command:
shutdown /m \\your_computer_name /c "The IT department has initiated a remote restart on your computer"
Below is the pop up on the remote computer with the custom message.

4. Immediate Restart no Countdown:

   - If you want to immediately restart with no countdown or message use this command:
shutdown /r /m \\your_computer_name /t 0
If you want a longer countdown just specify the seconds /t 60

5. Use Powershell to restart a computer:

   - This command will immediately restart a remote computer. The -Force option will force a restart even if a user is logged on:
Restart-Computer -ComputerName REMOTE_COMPUTER_NAME -Force

6. Use PowerShell to restart a list of computers:

   - This is handy if you have several computers to restart. Just list all the computers you want in a text file and add that to the PowerShell command:
restart-computer (get-content c:\work\computers.txt)

Also consider using Action1 to restart remote computer if:
- You need to perform this action on multiple (hundreds or even thousands) computers simultaneously.
- Some of your endpoints are laptops not connected to corporate network at all times.

Action1 is a cloud-based platform for software deployment, software/hardware inventory, patch management, endpoint configuration and more. It is free with basic functionality.


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