How To: Shut Down Your PC and Send Other Commands Remotely Through Twitter Using TweetMyPC

Ever been halfway to work or school and suddenly remembered you forgot to log off your computer? A lot of people are constantly logged in to email and social media accounts, so if you have a mischievous roommate or sibling, this situation could be disastrous. That's where TweetMyPC comes in—it's a free Windows application that lets you send commands to your computer just by tweeting.

Image by Twittermania

The app has a pretty decent list of functions. It can shut down or restart your computer, put it in standby or hibernate mode, and tell you how much battery is left. Want to know if your computer's being used? It can take a screenshot and send it to you. Just found an awesome new song or video? Send the URL and TweetMyPC will download it while you're out. And if you want it to do something that's not on the list, you can program your own custom commands.

Before you get started, I would suggest setting up a separate Twitter account just for the app that's private so you aren't broadcasting all this to your followers.

Setting it up is easy. Just download it, then sign in with your Twitter account to authorize the app. Once you're signed in, it will give you a PIN to enter on your PC. You can find the most up-to-date list of commands by going to About -> Basic Command List.

Now, all you have to do is tweet what you want it to do. The app will automatically tweet an update letting you know the command was received and a notification will pop up on your desktop.

This is a great little app if you want to remotely control your computer, but don't have the expertise to set up a virtual machine. What custom commands can you think of to make it even better? Let us know in the comments.