Stopping a computer from shutting down

There are various Shutdown scenarios that you can adjust in Control Panel:

1. Open Control Panel
2. Click "Hardware and Sound"
3. Click "Power Options"
4. In you selected Power Plan, click "Change Plan Settings"
5. Change "Put computer To Sleep" to "Never"
6. Click "Change advanced power settings"
7. In the "Power buttons and lid -> "Power button action", change the setting to "Do Nothing"
8. Click "OK"
9. Click "Save Changes"

You can also try to adjust your Windows Update settings:

1. Open Control Panel
2. Click "System and Security"
3. Click "Windows Update"
4. In the left panel, click "Change Settings"
5. Change the "Important Updates" setting to "Download updates but let me choose whether to install them"
6. Click "OK" (You may need to respond to a UAC prompt)

If you are still having this shutdown-in-the-middle-of-the-night problem, then it is likely that some piece of software other than Windows itself that could be causing the restarts. Try and determine which it is, and either close them, or turn off their own automatic updates functions...

Road Runner said:

Your suggestions were already posted at the top of the thread and I had responded saying those settings had already been setup. I think Tepid has the right idea in as much as the shutdown prevention was in XP but had been removed for Vista. That is the problem the option is not available in Win 7.

Correct you are no longer prompted when you click Shutdown, so you should be sure that is what you want to do, and I do not know if there is or ever will be an option to enable the "are you sure prompt".

shutdown /a does work though.

I just wanted to clarify as you post kinda suggested that shutdown /a doesn't work in Vista or 7. Just a wording thing.