Shutdown Stopper v2.0
Copyright 2000-2001 Outside The Box Software
Coded by Douglas Good
Released as Freeware March 16, 2001

Shutdown Stopper is a simple program that prevents your computer from shutting down and rebooting.  I wrote this after running an installation program that tried to force me to shut down and reboot.  Most times, install programs ask you whether you want to shutdown right away, or wait until later.  This one (which happened to be Norton Anti-Virus's Live Update) didn't give me an option - it was going to force me to shut down, and I didn't have a choice.  Unacceptable.  Shutdown Stopper was born.

To use, just run the program, and it will stop your PC from shutting down. It works because Windows sends a shutdown request to each running application before it actually shuts down.  If the application says OK, it will be terminated.  Once all the apps are terminated, Windows will shut down the PC.  Shutdown Stopper just says "NO" to the shutdown request, and Windows will then abort the shutdown process.  There is a way programs can force a shutdown that will override Shutdown Stopper, but most properly-coded software won't do this.  In fact, even selecting Shutdown from the Windows Start menu won't work if Shutdown Stopper is running.

Shutdown Stopper runs in the Windows Notification Tray on your Start Menu bar.  When you run the program, it will put a red, stop-sign shaped icon in the tray, and shutdowns will be disabled.  You can either right-click on the Icon to bring up a menu with options, or you can left-click and open the status window.  Either way lets you enable or disable shutdowns, exit the program, or turn off shutdown notifications so you won't be told when a shutdown attempt has occurred.  The notification setting is "remembered" even after Shutdown Stopper is terminated. 

Enjoy!
--Doug

REVISION HISTORY

Version 2.0 - March 16, 2001
 - Completely rewrote the user interface to make the program 100% nicer to use
 - Now runs as an Icon in the Notification tray, rather than taking up space on the desktop
 - Notification option lets you know when a shutdown attempt was thwarted
 - Added an about box with a link to my software page.  :)
 - Only one instance of the program is allowed to run at a time now.  More than one just
   wastes system resources; there's never a reason to have multiple instances running.
 - Notification setting is remembered in the registry: HKCU\Software\OTBSoft\ShutStop\Notify
   The value is 1 for On, 0 for Off. (For you techies out there who might be curious)


Version 1.0 - November 5, 2000
 - First public release 