Tutorial - How to Use AutoClose

A step by step tutorial shows you how to use AutoClose program to schedule a time to close programs after you leave the PC.

Index

Close a running Program after a Scheduled Period of Time
How to Select a Program by the Dragging Select Tool
How to Close a Running Program at a Specific Time
How to Terminate Hidden Programs and Processes
How to Set PC Operations(Reboot/Shutdown/Logoff etc.) After Finish Tasks
How To Schedule A Program To Run Automatically in Windows 10 and Windows 11
How to Automatically Close a Program that Cannot Be Closed by AutoClose
How to Run or Close a Program Every X Minutes or Hours on Windows

Video Tutorial

Close a running Program after a Scheduled Period of Time

The most commonly used function of AutoClose is closing running programs after a period of time. Let's take an example of closing the Internet Explorer program after 3 minutes:

1 - Click on the "Add a Task" button to add a new task.
2 - Select the Internet Explorer program in the program list. If you don't know the program process name or want to select the program active window instead, please check How to Select a Program by the Dragging Select Tool.
3 - Click on "Interval (Close After Day/Hour/Minute/Second)" option and set the period. Let's set "3 Minute(s)" and click on the "Add" button.
4 - You will see the task has been added to the task list. It will close the program you selected after the period of time you set.

how to use AutoClose

How to Select a Program by the Dragging Select Tool

You may find it is not easy to select the program process name in the program list, because the EXE name is often different from the program name. Don't worry, you could use the Dragging Select Tool to select the program much easier.

1 - First, you need to press the mouse left button on the Dragging Select Tool and hold, you will see the mouse cursor changes.
2 - Don't release the mouse button, move the cursor onto the program Window which you want to close and release the button.
3 - Then you will find that the program has been selected in the program list.

how to use Dragging Select Tool

How to Close a Running Program at a Specific Time

It is same as setting a period of time to close a program, but just a little different from the time setting:

1 - Click on the "Add a Task" button to add a new task.
2 - Select the program in the program list. You could use Dragging Select Tool to select a program easily.
3 - Click on "Specific Time" option and set the schedule time.
4 - Click the "Add" button to add this task to the task list.

How to Terminate Hidden Programs and Processes

The program list shows both normal processes and hidden processes. If you want to close a hidden program or hidden process, please click on Add a Task button and find it in the program list, and then click the Red Close button to kill the process.

This is the same way if you want to close a normal program immediately.

How to Save and Load the Task List

You can click on the "Save Tasks" button to save the task list into a .atf file, which will store all the tasks in the task list. The "Load Tasks" button will enable you to load the tasks from a .atf file for the next time use.

This is the same way if you want to close a normal program immediately.

How to Set PC Operations(Reboot/Shutdown/Logoff etc.) After Finish Tasks

While setting the time to close the program on the Add Task window, you may find there is a drop list named "After the task finished" at the bottom. You could select one item in the list to let PC shutdown, reboot, log off, hibernate or turn off the display monitor. The default setting is "Do nothing", which means AutoClose will not do PC operations after the task finished.

There is a "Quit AutoClose" option aside. You could check the option to let the AutoClose program quit automatically after completed all tasks.

All those settings could be set by clicking the "Setting" button on the toolbar of AutoClose main window as well.

How to Run a Program at a Specific Time

You may not only require to close programs, but also need to execute and run a program at a specific time. On the Add a Task window, there is a "Auto Type" drop list. Choose "Auto Run Task" and click on the "Select a Program" button to select an EXE file to run. You can also add parameters into the command line text box to let the program execute with parameters. Time Setting allows you to set the program run time and the loop.

Run or Close Programs After No Mouse Actions or Moving

There is a special feature in AutoClose: Run or Close Programs After No Mouse Moving or Actions. This feature will allow you to run and programs after a period of no mouse actions. For example, you can set it with a 20 minutes timer and it will do the task when the mouse cursor keeps no moving in 20 minutes.

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Windows XP / Vista / Windows 7 / Windows 8 / Windows 10 / Windows 11 & Server (64/32 bit) - 1.8 MB