Solution Found! Scheduled Shutdown Tasks

What my readers lack in numbers, they make up for in brains, good looks, and formidable Googling skills. I asked for a utility that would allow me to specify tasks (like defragging or backups) to happen upon shutting down Windows. An added wrinkle was that I wanted to be able to schedule those tasks, as I don't want to do a full backup/defrag every night, for example. Readers "miffed" and "dgeiser13" came up with some good ones, with dgeiser13's suggestion of Xecutor fitting my needs perfectly:

  • It intercepts the normal Windows shutdown, so I don't have to do anything differently.
  • I can schedule different things to happen depending on the day of the week.
  • Due to the nature of the tool, I don't have to worry about these processes running while I'm working. No slow-downs, and no worries about files being locked for use during backups.
  • Further reducing the risk of locks or conflicts, it appears to close many services before proceeding with its assigned task.
  • Free for non-commercial use.

Fantastic! Thank you!