This may be asking a lot but is it possible to.........

[Yurtgirl]

tell a computer that it must switch off at a certain time each day? (assuming it is on!)

I am a natural nightowl, I want to be a lark - but Im so hopeless at walking away from my pooter I am currently going to bed waaaaay too late

If I could set it so that it went off at say 10:30 at the latest that would really help

TIA

I do know of course that somewhere deep within I have 'some' willpower - but all my willpower atm is directed towards my 2 stone weightloss therefore none left for sensible bedtimes

Also as a lone parent there is no one to physically tell me to 'get to bed' - so I dont

Twas gone 12 last night

you could put a timer on the plug to the monitor. would only work if the timer was hard to get to

I'm currently considering getting internet explorer to block mumsnet

Thanks muddleduck - yes I could do that but I would only need to move a few cms as the socket is next to my chair!!

Blocking mn wouldnt help either as I would miss it and I would easily find other stuff to do - free online games are very absorbing dont ya know

Step-by-Step guide here

You are a marvel Lou - thzt looks perfect thankyou

Pleasure

I tested loads of timed shutdown programs for a project at work. This is my favourite (and it's free)

Gee this is quite complicated isnt it- well it seems that way too me

SWM - that looks interesting too, but amongst the systems it says it will run on, it doesnt list vista, which I think lou's does

There's no reason it shouldn't work with vista - i would try it. Don't be put off by all the options on the web page, all you need to do is run it, set the options you want, then select the menu option to install as a service.

lou's method uses the built-in windows scheduler, which as okay in theory but in practice has a few drawbacks.