Questions on gracefully shutting down multiple systems

Hey all.

Looking for some help/ideas on how others are gracefully shutting down their multiple system setups.

My startups are easy... power buttons on all systems and they boot right up while shortcuts in the various startup folders execute my Sioc and Prosim. No issues, all screens are always right where I left them, and FSX puts me at my favorite gate, cold and dark.

Shutdown on the other hand isn't so easy. So far I've not had any issues just shutting down via the Start button. No need to individually exit anything except for FSX first, but....

As I only have one keyboard via a KVM switch, I have to cycle through each system, press the start button which depending on the system use could be in the corner of a DU on the MIP, the lower DU... or a CDU. Then... I have to select Start and then Shut down... then confirm shut down... you guys/gals have lived it, you know the deal.

Short of a switch off the mains, is there an easier way? A script that will run on multiple networked PCs, or something?

Thanks,

I use Input Director ( Freeware) and that has auto shutdown for master and slaves. Input director is a great programme for 1 mouse and 1 computer across the network. http://www.inputdirector.com/

Kind Regards

Bernie.

Thanks Bernie!

This may just do the trick, and it seems I can ditch the KVM too. I'll check it out.

Warren

Hi there,
as you are most probably using widefs , this software allows shutdown facility.
just look at the documentation of widefs and you will find something like autoShutdown= yes in the ini file.

I have 5 pcs in the cockpit and as soon as I close FS (FS2004 in my case) all attached computers running widefs
will first close the applications that were started by widefs and then it will shutdown the PC itself.
So in my case in the startup folder there is only widefs. When FS starts on the main PC only then all my cockpit applications
are started on the other computers. This is also obtained by some settings in the wideclient.ini

Greetz Peter

Well Gents...thanks for all the replies.

I have achieved success thanks to all of you guys. First, I can't believe that I had forgotten all about FSUIPC and WideFS. Years ago I used WideFS to do exactly what I needed but had forgotten.

Through the various replies I learned about another utility. I was completely unaware of the built in Win7 remote shutdown... I gave it a try and it worked great with the exception of some issues shutting down the clients... I decided to stick to FSUIPC and WideFS but I am definitely making note of this utility. Thanks!

Bernie... Input Director! Wow. I now control all my systems with one keyboard and one mouse, without dealing with a KVM switch. I can run my mouse from my instructor station laptop through my CDUs and Lower DU, up into and across my Left, Upper, and Right DU, then up into my TH2GO outside view... Pretty neat as it spans three PCs.

So as it stands now using FSUIPC and WideFS, I turn on all three systems and they boot up. My client PCs boot and WideClient waits for FSX to load and contact them before starting up all my Prosim Modules and SIOC.

To shut down, I use a Keypress (CTRL+SHIFT+E) and FSUIPC shuts down all my wideclient Apps and PCs, shuts down the Apps on my Server system, then closes down FSX and finally shuts down my Server PC.

Exactly what I wanted as I can map my kepress to say... my Ground Power Switch! The last thing I do in the cockpit before leaving is turn off Ground Power and boom! Everything shuts down!

The only issues... my lower DU and CDU screens don't auto shut off... I have to press a button to kill the power. I'll probably have to fix that with the powerstrip switches.

Thanks again!

Warren

I should have posted this over here a while ago, but here goes:

sorry it's taken so long to get back to this thread... I'm getting really good at shooting off on tangents with the Sim (actually managed to reprogram my USBKeys PIC so my second CDU seems to work now)j

OK... lets see... first, Pete Dowson's got a fix in the newest FSUIPC 4.805 that slowed down FSUIPC from shutting down before the code could execute and close programs on the server system so that looks like it's taken care of.

second, I've got the whole autoshutdown thing turned off with comments right now as I mess with different stuff. Hopefully I got everything back the way it was. Everytime I would close out FSX, all my systems would shut down... yes, I know that is the point but very annoying when you are just needing a restart of FSX.

Third, I have FSX and SIOC set up to start via the Startup folder on the server system. My client systems that use SIOC also have it starting up from the startup folder. I chose to let FSUIPC and Wideclient start up Prosim after FSX has loaded (using the READY command).

Here are my [program] and [wideserver] settings within FSUIPC:

[Programs]
Run1=READY,CLOSE,D:\Prosim737\ProsimMCP\ProsimMCP.exe
Run2=READY,CLOSE,D:\Prosim737\ProsimDisplay\ProsimDisplay.exe
Run3=READY,CLOSE,D:\Prosim737\Prosim737\Prosim737.exe

[WideServer]
WideFSenabled=Yes
AdvertiseService=1
ProtocolPreffered=UDP
BroadcastMode=Yes
Port=8002
Port2=9002
AllowShutdown=YES
AutoShutdown=YES
ShutDownHotKey=69,11

Here are my typical Wideclient settings on the client machines:

[User]
Log=Errors+
Background=C:\WideClient\Background.bmp
RunReady1=C:\Prosim737\ProsimDisplay\ProsimDisplay.exe
RunReady2=C:\Prosim737\ProsimAudio\ProsimAudio.exe
RunReady3=C:\Prosim737\ProsimCDU1\ProsimCDU.exe
RunReady4=C:\Prosim737\ProsimCDU2\ProsimCDU.exe
AllowShutdown=YES
CloseReady1=YES
CloseReady2=YES
CloseReady3=YES
CloseReady4=YES


OK, just tested it and it works. The FSUIPC Wideserver "ALLOWSHUTDOWN=YES" is the line that shuts down the Server PC. If you change that to NO, then the clients all shutdown, but FSX and the server stay running.

Hope this helps.

Warren

I just setup the power button in windows settings to shutdown when pressed. It works great! So I turn the computers on and the startup folder loads the software. When I am done I just press the power button to start the shutdown. No mouse or keyboard needed for normal ops.

Prosim - Maintenance tab - Shutdown all computers - tick - confirm - job done!!

Or you could just leave it on all the time!