shutdown Windows Server 2003 remotely

Shutdown - Select your victim

Now for the 'Remote' switch /m \\victim. The full command would be:
Shutdown /r /m \\victim. The slashes look slightly strange, but that's how it works, in this example, 'victim' is the remote machine name. None of this is case sensitive so sHUTDOWN /R /m \\ViCTim would work.

Note: There is no space between the backslashes and the computername
\\ victim would be a mistake.

For the local machine, try 127.0.0.1 e.g shutdown /s /m \\127.0.0.1. Useful in batch files.

Examples for Shutdown switch

shutdown /s /m \\victim - Shuts down a remote machine called 'victim'

shutdown /r /m \\exchange - Reboots a remote machine called 'Exchange'

Note: For once the sequence of switches is important shutdown /m /s \\ machine does not work.

Shutdown - Add the extras

/t for time. Is 30 seconds too short (or too long) a time? You can adjust with /t: 60 to display the dialog box one minute. Maximum is 600 seconds.

/f for force. 'Mr Nasty', is coming - ready or not! Shutdown /r /f as you may have guessed, restarts the machine and closes any programs without warning.

/c for comment. Would you like to put your stamp on the shutdown? Let people know who is in charge, who is shutting them down? /c " Guy is shutting you down"

/d p:4:1 reason. Personally, I would avoid this switch, the syntax is tricky the numbers obscure and worst of all it does nothing exciting. That said the idea is sound, it enters a reason for the shutdown in the event log. If you activate shutdown's help, then you will get a whole list of major and minor reasons that you could employ with this switch. For me, this switch is an option, an option that I do not take.

Note 1: Shutdown's switches work equally well with a dash, for example, -d, -r or -a
(instead of /d, /r or /a)

Note 2: Here is another example of Shutdown in action