WMC - prevent pc from shutting down if scheduled recordings exist?

I am a happy user of Windows Media Center on a fully updated Windows 7 Ultimate 64-bit OS. I am using it with a new Hauppauge Colossus video recorder and I must say the video looks crisp and highly detail and plays very smoothly and the recordings look equally impressive (In fact the live video and the recordings look much better with WMC than with the included WinTV v7 software which also crashes my pc regularly). The guide is fully updated with all the channels I receive on my Verizon FiOS TV service and I am using some very useful add-ons such as Media Browser.

The only little bugaboo I noticed is that I forget there are some scheduled recordings when I turn off my computer for the night. I wish Windows would alert me when I click "Shut down" that there are scheduled recordings. I am using my pc as a DVR essentially. Tivo, FiOS DVR, and other DVRs can be turned off and yet they record their scheduled recordings. There must be some way to mimic that behavior with a pc.

I'm not exactly sure how to remedy this since I am new to WMC. I'm wondering if maybe leaving WMC running all the time will prompt an alert when I go to shut down the computer. Perhaps not shutting down but putting the computer into stand-by is the way to go. Does WMC pull a computer out of stand-by to begin a scheduled recording? If so, does WMC need to be running all the time for such a stand-by feature to work?

Thank you for your time and courtesy!

Hello,
TIVO is always on. The only way to turn it off is to unplug it. You can put it in standby, but the hard drive is always on and spinning. I suspect that the other DVR's you mention are in a standby or hibernate modes as well, and not actually off.

The computer does need to be in either hibernate of standby to record. But wake-up results vary based upon mode, power settings, etc.

WMC will record as long as it's services are on and the computer is able to wake for recording.