Computers are seen everywhere in today’s world—whether it’s an office or home or school. The computer has made all the works much faster and easier than before. But, sometimes in a hurry or loss of memory, we forget to turn off the computers. Suppose you are at home using the internet on your computer and your friend needs your help and you go to his house without turning off the computer. After being there for some time, you feel that you will have to be there for some more time, then you think to turn off your home computer. But, can’t do anything until your help finishes. But, here I am going to show you how you can turn off your computer just by sending an email. The process is very easy.

Keep these things ready before going further:

Two Email accounts with POP3 Enabled in one email account (Prefer to use Gmail)
Microsoft Office Outlook 2007 (with one Email account configured)

Now, I assume that you have the above things ready. Let’s go further. I will use my Google Apps Email Account (mahesh[at]techlisten.com) in this process.

Turning Off Computer Just By Sending An Email

Step 1: First of all, open Microsoft Office Outlook 2007 and go to Tools>>Rules and Alerts.

Step 2: In the E-mail Rules tab, click on New Rule.

Step 3: Now, you will be seeing the Rules Wizard, here you can configure the rules for the emails you receive and you send. Here, select “Check messages when they arrive” and click Next>.

Step 4: Here, we will have to create the Rule what to do when a message arrives. As we are going to shut down our computer by sending an email, we will select “with specific words in the sender’s address” and “with specific words in the subject or body” in “Select Condition(s)” section.

Step 5: Now, we will have to specify the words which will be executed when a message arrives, click on “specific words” in the sender’s address.

Step 6: In the box provided, type the computer should execute the email address from which the emails sent. I will use info[at]techlisten.com. After entering an email address, click on Add and then OK.

Step 7: Now, click “specific words” in the subject or body. A dialog box will open, type “TURN OFF” (without quotes) in the box and click Add. Then, click OK.

Step 8: Click on Next>. Now, we will have to specify the actions which should be taken when a message arrives. Our goal is to turn off the computer by an email, so we have to create a simple Batch file which has the command to shut down the computer. Open Notepad and write the code below in it, then save the file with .bat extension, like shutdown.bat.

shutdown.exe -s

Step 9: Now, Select “start application” from the actions.

Step 10: Click on start “application.“ Now, you will have to choose the file which you have created or downloaded in step 8 and click Next>.

Step 11: Hit Next> again. Now, you have reached the finished page. Give the rule a name like TURN OFF, check “Turn on this rule” and click “Finish.“

In the Rules and Alerts, click on OK. That’s it.

We have done the process. Now, if I ever send the email from info[at]techlisten.com to mahesh[at]techlisten.com with the word TURN OFF in the subject, then my computer will turn off.

Do share your opinions about this tutorial in the comments below.