If you’re a Windows 7 media center user, you may be familiar with the Sleep Timer feature. This handy tool lets you set a time limit for how long your computer will stay on during sleep, and then wake it up when that time is up. If you’re not familiar with the Sleep Timer, here’s a quick overview:

  1. Open the Start screen and type “cmd” into the search bar. Type “sleep” and hit enter. The Sleep Timer will appear on the left side of the screen.
  2. To add a sleep timer to your Media Center account, click on the blue “+” next to the name of your Media Center account in the top left corner of the Sleep Timer window. This will add a new sleep timer to your account.
  3. To use your new sleep timer, open one of your media center programs and click on its “+” next to the name of your new sleep timer in the top left corner of the Sleep Timer window.

Note: At this point MC7 Sleep Timer doesn’t work with extenders. If you’re using ClamAV or Panda it may detect this plugin as a virus, we’ve tested it and this is a false positive for these two antivirus apps.

Installation and Usage

Download and install MC7 Sleep Timer. (See download below)

After the installation is finished, you will find MC7 Sleep Timer located in the Media Center Extras Library. Click on the tile to open the timer and configure your settings.

The MC7 Sleep Timer will open in full screen mode. You can choose to shutdown the PC after 30 or 60 minutes, create a custom length shutdown timer at any 5 minute interval, or select the exact time you want the PC to shutdown.  After setting your PC to shutdown, you’ll get an audio confirmation.

To set a custom timer length, scroll to the “Custom timer” option and click right or left on your Media Center remote or, the right or left arrow keys, to choose how many minutes before shutdown.

To schedule a shutdown for a certain time, browse to the “Shutdown at time” button, and scroll right or left with the arrow keys on the keyboard or remote. When you’ve chosen your time, hit “Enter” on the keyboard or “OK” on the remote.

Clicking the “Monitor Off” button will turn off only the monitor and “Cancel Timer” will cancel your shutdown request.

Conclusion

If you often find yourself falling asleep every night watching Media Center and then fumbling and stumbling in the middle of the night to shutdown your computer, MC7 Sleep timer might just be a perfect addition to your Media Center setup.

Download MC7 Sleep Timer