Question

I intend to use the code below to shutdown or restart a computer. Every time I run this, it goes back to set /p var=Type computer name here: Can you please tell me, what is wrong with my script and how to fix it?

@ECHO off
set /p var=Type computer name here: 
cls
TITLE %var% power control!!!!
ECHO Copyright © Joshua Reynolds 2012
ECHO USE THIS PROGRAM AT YOUR OWN RISK
pause
:start
cls
ECHO Choose an option below:
ECHO 1. Shutdown
ECHO 2. Restart
ECHO 3. Abort previous choice
ECHO 4. Exit
set /p choice=Type the options number: 
if not '%choice%'=='' set choice=%choice:~0,1%
if '%choice%'=='1' goto shutdown
if '%choice%'=='2' goto restart
if '%choice%'=='3' goto abort
if '%choice%'=='4' exit
cls
ECHO "%choice%" is not a valid option please try again
ECHO.
pause
goto start
:shutdown
COLOR 4f
cls
ECHO To shutdown %var%
pause
shutdown /s /m \\%var%
ECHO %var% should now shutdown.
goto start
:restart
COLOR A0
cls
ECHO To restart %var%
pause
shutdown /r /m \\%var%
ECHO %var% should now restart.
goto end
:abort
COLOR 5f
cls
shutdown /a /m \\%var%
goto end
:end
pause
COLOR 0f
goto start

Answer 1

Perhaps the name of your batch script is shutdown.bat and it is in your current directory. So when your script tries to run the SHUTDOWN command, it re-runs your batch script instead.

Either change the name of your script, or else explicitly use shutdown.exe within your script whenever you want to invoke the command.