How to Restart a Computer Using PowerShell

To restart a computer using PowerShell, run Restart-Computer. It restarts the local PC right away, so save your work first:

Restart-Computer

Add -ComputerName to restart remote PCs. Below I preview restarts safely, restart remote servers and wait for them to come back, check for a pending restart and schedule one for later.

Preview a restart with -WhatIf

I didn’t want my PC to restart while writing this, so I ran Restart-Computer with -WhatIf. It shows the target and does nothing:

Restart-Computer -WhatIf

Output:

What if: Performing the operation "Enable the Local shutdown access rights and restart the computer." on target "localhost (DESKTOP-4T7K2QX)".

I hid my PC name in the screenshot and replaced it with DESKTOP-4T7K2QX in the text. When a script builds the list of computers, -WhatIf is a cheap way to confirm the list before anything happens.

After the restart, you can confirm when it happened with the last reboot time.

Restart the local computer

Restart-Computer works in a normal PowerShell window on your own PC, because standard users can usually shut down their own computer. If other people are signed in, it fails unless you add -Force:

Restart-Computer -Force

-Force restarts immediately and doesn’t wait for apps to close, so unsaved work is lost.

Restart a remote computer

Pass one or more names to -ComputerName. You need admin rights on each remote PC:

Restart-Computer -ComputerName 'NYC-SRV01', 'DAL-SRV02' -Credential (Get-Credential) -Force

Restart-Computer checks every name first, even with -WhatIf. A typo or a server that isn’t in DNS fails before anything restarts:

try { Restart-Computer -ComputerName 'NYC-SRV01' -WhatIf -ErrorAction Stop }
catch { "Failed. $($_.Exception.Message)" }

Output:

Failed. Computer name NYC-SRV01 cannot be resolved with the exception: One or more errors occurred. (No such host is known.).

Windows PowerShell 5.1 shows the same message without the No such host is known part. To restart a list of servers from a file, pipe it: Get-Content -Path .\servers.txt | Restart-Computer -Force.

Restart and wait until the computer is back

In a maintenance script you usually want to wait for the server before the next step. -Wait blocks until the restart finishes, and -For says what to wait for:

Restart-Computer -ComputerName 'NYC-SRV01' -Force -Wait -For PowerShell -Timeout 300 -Delay 2

This waits up to 300 seconds until PowerShell remoting works again, checking every 2 seconds. -For also accepts WMI and WinRM. -Wait doesn’t work for the local computer, for an obvious reason.

Check if a restart is pending

Windows Update and component installs set registry keys when they need a restart. Checking them is read-only and doesn’t need admin rights:

$keys = 'HKLM:\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\WindowsUpdate\Auto Update\RebootRequired',
        'HKLM:\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Component Based Servicing\RebootPending'
$pending = @($keys | Where-Object { Test-Path -Path $_ })
"Restart pending: $($pending.Count -gt 0)"

Output:

Restart pending: False

If it says True, schedule a restart. To see when the PC last started, read getting the last reboot time with PowerShell.

Schedule a restart or warn users with shutdown.exe

Restart-Computer has no delay option, since -Delay only sets how often -Wait checks. I use shutdown.exe for that. This restarts in 10 minutes and shows users a message:

shutdown.exe /r /t 600 /c "Restarting for updates at 10:30 PM. Please save your work."

Run shutdown.exe /a to cancel it before the time runs out. Add /m \\NYC-SRV01 for a remote PC.

For a restart at a fixed time every week, a scheduled task is the better fit. Listing scheduled tasks with PowerShell shows how to check what’s already scheduled.

PowerShell 7 vs Windows PowerShell 5.1

Restart-Computer has fewer parameters in PowerShell 7. These are the ones each version accepts:

$common = [System.Management.Automation.PSCmdlet]::CommonParameters +
          [System.Management.Automation.PSCmdlet]::OptionalCommonParameters
(Get-Command -Name Restart-Computer).Parameters.Keys |
    Where-Object { $_ -notin $common } | Sort-Object

Output:

ComputerName
Credential
Delay
For
Force
Timeout
Wait
WsmanAuthentication

Windows PowerShell 5.1 also has AsJob, DcomAuthentication, Impersonation, Protocol and ThrottleLimit. If an old script uses -Protocol or -AsJob, run it in 5.1. The Restart-Computer reference covers both versions.

Frequently Asked Questions