Wardoff

The first modern open-source tool for taking control of Windows shutdowns.

Unexpected shutdowns and reboots still interrupt gaming sessions, long-running builds, remote administration, and overnight workloads. Existing utilities are often closed-source, abandoned, or focused mainly on sleep prevention rather than transparent shutdown control. Wardoff is a Windows-native Rust project that tries to be explicit about both its current capabilities and its hard limits.

This repository is no longer just a planning scaffold. The current codebase implements a working MVP-level runtime with a tray surface, CLI, structured logging, single-instance coordination, and the safe user-space shutdown layers that fit the current branch scope.

Features MVP

Implemented in this repository today:

• working Windows tray/runtime application with Block and Allow state management
• CLI support for:
  • --block
  • --allow
  • --status
  • --hide
  • --log
  • --tail
  • --autostart on|off
• Layer 1 interactive shutdown blocking via WM_QUERYENDSESSION, ShutdownBlockReasonCreate(), and SetProcessShutdownParameters()
• Layer 2 standard-mode local shutdown.exe detection via ETW process-start monitoring plus best-effort AbortSystemShutdownW(None) attempts
• Layer 3 Windows Update reboot-task protection for Microsoft\Windows\UpdateOrchestrator\Reboot
• Layer 4 remote shutdown abort polling via AbortSystemShutdownW(None)
• sleep, hibernate, and display-idle blocking via SetThreadExecutionState(...)
• rotating structured JSONL logs under %LOCALAPPDATA%\Wardoff\logs\
• Task Scheduler autostart management
• single-instance enforcement plus named-pipe IPC so secondary CLI invocations can control the primary runtime
• tray power actions for Shutdown, Reboot, Sleep, Hibernate, and Quit

Planned features v1.0

These items are still missing in the current shipped implementation:

• opt-in aggressive IFEO mode for earlier local shutdown.exe interception
• Windows Event Log integration
• native Windows toast notifications
• timer-based blocking windows
• profiles and a settings window
• packaging and distribution polish via GitHub Releases, Winget, Scoop, and Chocolatey

Honest limitations

• Current Wardoff still does not promise to block local shutdown /t 0 /f. Layer 2 now watches ETW process-start events for local shutdown.exe launches and immediately tries AbortSystemShutdownW(None), but a forced zero-second local shutdown can still outrun a user-space abort attempt.
• The current branch ships Layer 1, Layer 2 standard mode, Layer 3, Layer 4, and sleep/display blocking. It does not yet ship aggressive IFEO interception.
• Windows Update protection is tied to the Microsoft\Windows\UpdateOrchestrator\Reboot scheduled task and requires administrator rights.
• Remote shutdown abort logic only helps while Windows still exposes a shutdown timeout window and the process has the rights needed for AbortSystemShutdownW(None).
• Default no-argument startup is designed to request elevation so the full safe MVP can run. Some explicit CLI paths can still run without elevation, but elevated-only features may then be skipped and logged as unavailable.
• There is no Windows Event Log integration, toast UI, settings window, timer/profile system, or polished installer/distribution flow yet.

How it works

Wardoff is designed as a layered Windows-only tool because no single user-space API covers every shutdown origin. The architecture reference is documented in docs/WINDOWS_SHUTDOWN_LAYERS.md:

1. Layer 1: standard interactive shutdown blocking
2. Layer 2: local shutdown.exe handling (standard mode)
3. Layer 3: Windows Update reboot task control
4. Layer 4: remote shutdown abort polling

Wardoff also implements a separate power-state blocker for sleep, hibernate, and display idle prevention.

Installation

Wardoff is currently source-first. There is not yet a polished release/distribution pipeline.

Build from source on Windows with the MSVC toolchain:

cargo build --release

The resulting binary is typically:

target\release\wardoff.exe

Usage

Default launch

Running wardoff with no arguments starts the primary runtime in Block mode with a visible tray icon. On the default startup path, Wardoff may relaunch itself elevated so Layer 3 and other privileged functionality can operate when available.

CLI

wardoff
wardoff --block
wardoff --allow
wardoff --status
wardoff --hide
wardoff --log
wardoff --log --tail 50
wardoff --autostart on
wardoff --autostart off

Command behavior in the current implementation:

• wardoff starts the tray runtime in Block mode
• --block switches the primary instance to Block mode or starts a headless Block-mode runtime
• --allow switches the primary instance to Allow mode or starts a visible Allow-mode runtime
• --status prints compact JSON describing the current state, active layers, uptime, and blocked count
• --hide starts Block mode with the tray icon created but hidden
• --log prints recent structured JSONL records
• --tail N changes how many recent records --log prints
• --autostart on|off creates, updates, or removes the current-user scheduled task used for Start with Windows

Example --status shape:

{"state":"block","layers":{"shutdown":true,"local_shutdown":true,"update":true,"remote":true,"sleep":true},"uptime_seconds":42,"blocked_count":3}

If no primary runtime is active, --status returns:

{"state":"inactive"}

Tray surface

The current tray menu includes:

• Block
• Allow
• Start with Windows
• Shutdown
• Reboot
• Sleep
• Hibernate
• Quit

Tray icons are red in Block mode and green in Allow mode.

Logging

Wardoff writes rotating structured JSONL logs to:

%LOCALAPPDATA%\Wardoff\logs\wardoff.jsonl

The current implementation keeps up to 3 log files and rotates when the active log grows past 5 MiB.

Comparison

Product	Source model	Stack	shutdown.exe handling	Status
Wardoff	Open-source MIT project	Rust	ETW-based standard-mode monitoring for local shutdown.exe, plus Layers 1, 3, and 4; no aggressive IFEO mode yet	MVP runtime implemented on current branch
ShutdownBlocker	Closed freeware	.NET Framework 4.0	Uses IFEO for shutdown.exe	Last known update March 2017
ShutdownGuard	Open-source MIT project	Pure C with MinGW	Historical DLL injection approach	Archived as UNSUPPORTED since 2014
Don't Sleep	Closed freeware	Closed-source Windows utility	Does not block shutdown.exe	Actively maintained
PreventTurnOff	Closed freeware	Closed-source Windows utility	Same limitation as Don't Sleep	Actively maintained, simplified

See docs/COMPARISON.md for the full comparison and trade-offs.

Contributing

Contributions are welcome. Start with CONTRIBUTING.md, read PLAN.md, and keep changes aligned with the current MVP scope and the current branch's honest limitations.

License

Wardoff is licensed under the MIT License.