If you are a power PC user, you will most definitely have thought of various methods to control your computer’s shutdown on a variety of settings. The purpose of Intelligent Shutdown is to make all of that easier by letting you set parameters to control exactly when your PC will shut down, log off or reboot.
Installation & Requirements
The installation of the program is a bit extensive, giving you options like creating shortcuts, installing for all users, choosing a path and more. The supported operating systems are Windows XP, Vista, 7 and 8.x.
Interface
Immediately after launching the program and getting rid of the annoying nag screen, you will be asked if you want to launch the settings wizard as a first time user. This little feature sets the tone for the rest of the program where everything is made easy for the user via a selection of configuration options that lets you customize pretty much all events in which you want your computer to be shut down, provided you do not need to set a large amount of parameters.
Do know that when I say easy, I do not mean you can just launch the program and have everything ready at once. The settings wizard also sets the tone for another important aspect of the application and that is that it requires a bit of a time investment on the part of the user in order to work properly. The very first options you get to choose from are quite complex, asking you to choose triggers like “certain network load falls below X for a given period”, triggers that casual users might not really understand. Furthermore, the translation of the product is not exactly ideal and that will probably cause additional issues to the average user.
The main interface of the program also follows the same pattern as the setup wizard. Although the interface is tiny, there is a ton of things to look after and it definitely seems overwhelming. The good thing about the interface is that all of the options in the wizard are present there as well, meaning you can quickly configure things if you thought the wizard was simple. The bad thing about it though is that it is too complex for no reason at all.
For example, instead of having a list with the scheduled events and their corresponding actions, you can only set a single event for each type of trigger. For example, if you have set your PC to shut down after a torrent program completes a download you cannot also set it to shut down if a browser finishes a download. This is just one of the weird designs that hinder the program.
Of course, there are a few good things about it as well. For example, monitoring the activities is extremely easy and the program never stops until a trigger event is reached. When that happens, everything works smoothly and you do not ever have to worry about your PC still being open when you get home after your weekend trip. Quick links to the energy options and Task Scheduler are also very welcome additions since you probably require them for a complete experience.
Pros
-Trigger controls work brilliantly
-Quite easy to set up even though it requires a bit of time
-Small utilities like monitoring tools and quick links work wonders
Cons
-Clunky, unresponsive design
-Very limited amount of configuration options
-Too complex even though it does not need to be
-Overwhelming to the average user and for good reason
Conclusion
If you want your PC to shut down after a few very specific events, Intelligent Shutdown will probably work just fine for you. More complex configurations are sorely lacking from the program so the more advanced users can probably do better by themselves.
