TimerOff

A small shutdown timer for macOS and Windows. Pick a preset, a duration or a time of day, and the computer shuts down when the countdown ends. You can cancel at any moment, and the last thirty seconds come with a warning you cannot miss.

Features

• Presets: 15 minutes, 30 minutes, 1 hour, 2 hours. Or any duration, or a time of day (a time that has already passed means tomorrow).
• Always cancellable: the remaining time is in view the whole time, with a Cancel next to it. Nothing is sent to the system until the countdown reaches zero.
• Thirty-second warning: a panel comes to the front with the countdown in red, a sound, and a Cancel button.
• Graceful shutdown: the same request as the Shut Down menu, so apps get to save and quit.
• Native and light: AppKit on macOS (about 1 MB, around 12 MB of memory), WPF on Windows; both keep running in the menu bar or notification area when the window is closed. No third-party dependencies, no network access.
• Localized in English and Italian.

Download

Get the latest build from the Releases page.

• macOS (TimerOff-x.y.z-macOS.zip, Apple Silicon and Intel): unzip and move TimerOff to Applications. The app is not notarized, so the first time you open it macOS says it cannot verify it: click Done, then go to System Settings › Privacy & Security and click Open Anyway.
• Windows (TimerOff-x.y.z-Windows-x64.zip, or -arm64 for ARM PCs): unzip and run TimerOff\TimerOff.exe. Keep the Assets folder next to it. If SmartScreen warns about an unrecognized app, click More info › Run anyway. Nothing else needs to be installed.

macOS

Requires macOS 15 or later, on Apple Silicon or Intel.

TimerOff opens as a small window, with no Dock icon: click a preset, or enter a duration or a time of day and press Start. The countdown takes the place of the choices, with Cancel underneath. Closing the window keeps the timer running in the menu bar, where the remaining time appears next to the power symbol. Click the symbol to show the window again; right-click it for Show TimerOff, Cancel timer and Quit TimerOff.

The first time you set a timer, macOS asks whether TimerOff may control System Events: that is how the app shuts the Mac down, so answer Allow. If you denied it, turn it on in System Settings › Privacy & Security › Automation.

Build from source

Requires Xcode 16 or later.

git clone https://github.com/slioce/TimerOff.git
cd TimerOff/macOS
make install   # builds, copies to /Applications and launches
make run       # launches the build without installing it
make run-dry   # same, but logs the shutdown instead of running it
make test      # runs the timer logic tests

Or open macOS/TimerOff.xcodeproj in Xcode and press Run. The project is signed to run locally out of the box; no developer account is needed. With TIMEROFF_DRYRUN=1 in the environment the app does everything except the shutdown itself, which it logs instead.

Windows

Requires Windows 10 version 1809 or later, or Windows 11.

TimerOff opens as a small window: click a preset, or enter a duration or a time (HH:MM) and press Start. The countdown takes the place of the choices, with Cancel underneath. Closing the window keeps the timer running in the notification area, where the icon's tooltip shows the remaining time and its menu offers Show TimerOff, Cancel timer and Exit.

Build from source

Requires the .NET 10 SDK; Visual Studio 2022 with the Windows application development workload for the MSIX package.

git clone https://github.com/slioce/TimerOff.git
cd TimerOff/Windows
dotnet test TimerOff.Core.Tests   # runs the timer logic tests, on any OS
dotnet run --project TimerOff      # builds and launches the app, on Windows

Set TIMEROFF_DRYRUN=1 to try the whole flow without shutting down: at zero the tray icon shows a notification instead.

Project layout

macOS/TimerOff/            The app: main window, menu bar item, shutdown.
macOS/TimerOff/Resources/  Info.plist, entitlements, privacy manifest, icon, localizations.
macOS/TimerOffCore/        Swift package with the timer logic and its tests. No AppKit, no UI.
macOS/Config/              Build settings shared by every configuration (xcconfig).
macOS/scripts/             make-icon.swift draws the icon for both platforms.
Windows/TimerOff/          The app: WPF window with the Fluent theme, tray icon, shutdown.
Windows/TimerOff.Core/     Class library with the timer logic; TimerOff.Core.Tests has its tests.
Windows/TimerOff.Package/  MSIX packaging project and manifest for the Microsoft Store.

The logic is the same on both sides and has no UI in it: a Trigger turns into a target date, and a Countdown reports the seconds left, one warning and the moment it fires. The apps only draw that state and, at zero, ask the system to shut down: macOS through an Apple event to System Events, Windows through shutdown /s /t 0.

Publishing

GitHub release

Both apps build on a Mac (Xcode, and the .NET 10 SDK for Windows). From the repository root, with the version in macOS/Config/Shared.xcconfig and Windows/TimerOff/TimerOff.csproj already bumped:

make -C macOS test && dotnet test Windows/TimerOff.Core.Tests
make -C macOS clean build
mkdir -p dist
ditto -c -k --sequesterRsrc --keepParent macOS/build/Build/Products/Release/TimerOff.app dist/TimerOff-1.0.0-macOS.zip
for rid in win-x64 win-arm64; do
  dotnet publish Windows/TimerOff/TimerOff.csproj -c Release -r $rid --self-contained \
    -p:EnableWindowsTargeting=true -p:PublishSingleFile=true -p:IncludeNativeLibrariesForSelfExtract=true \
    -p:EnableCompressionInSingleFile=true -p:DebugType=none -o dist/$rid/TimerOff
  (cd dist/$rid && zip -qrX ../TimerOff-1.0.0-Windows-${rid#win-}.zip TimerOff)
done
(cd dist && shasum -a 256 *.zip > SHA256SUMS.txt)
gh release create v1.0.0 dist/*.zip dist/SHA256SUMS.txt --title "TimerOff 1.0.0"

The Mac build is signed ad hoc, not notarized; with a Developer ID, archive and use Direct Distribution instead (see below). The Windows build is a self-contained single-file exe, so it needs no .NET runtime; it reads its tray icon from Assets\TimerOff.ico, which is why the zip holds the whole folder.

Mac App Store

1. Create macOS/Config/Local.xcconfig (ignored by git) with your team:

   DEVELOPMENT_TEAM = ABCDE12345
   CODE_SIGN_IDENTITY = Apple Development
   

2. In Xcode, choose Product › Archive (or run make archive in macOS/), then Distribute App › App Store Connect.

The app runs in the App Sandbox. Shutting down is an Apple event to System Events, which the sandbox blocks unless the app declares the com.apple.security.temporary-exception.apple-events entitlement for com.apple.systemevents. Apple's guidelines call this exception a likely cause of rejection, although shutdown timers with it are on the store; explain it in the App Review notes, for example:

The app's only purpose is to shut the Mac down when a timer the user set ends. It does so with the standard AppleScript tell application "System Events" to shut down, which is why it declares the temporary Apple events exception for com.apple.systemevents. The user grants the Automation permission when arming the timer. The app has no network access and keeps no data.

If App Review declines, the same build can be distributed outside the store: archive, Distribute App › Direct Distribution (which notarizes it), and attach the app to a GitHub release.

Microsoft Store

1. In Partner Center, reserve the app name and read its Package identity: the Package/Identity/Name and the Package/Identity/Publisher.

2. Put those two values in Windows/TimerOff.Package/Package.appxmanifest, and your name in PublisherDisplayName.

3. In Visual Studio, right-click TimerOff.Package › Publish › Create App Packages › Microsoft Store, or from a Developer Command Prompt:

   msbuild Windows\TimerOff.sln /restore /p:Configuration=Release /p:Platform=x64 /p:UapAppxPackageBuildMode=StoreUpload
   

4. Upload the .msixupload from Windows\TimerOff.Package\AppPackages to the submission.

The package is a full-trust desktop app (the runFullTrust capability), which it needs to run shutdown.exe. It is self-contained, so it does not depend on a .NET runtime being installed.

Privacy

Everything happens on your computer. TimerOff has no network access, collects no data, and keeps no settings. On macOS the privacy manifest (PrivacyInfo.xcprivacy) declares no tracking and no collected data.

Acknowledgements

TimerOff was written with the help of AI coding agents; design, review and testing are the author's.

License

Copyright © 2026 Alessandro Lioce. TimerOff is free software, released under the GNU General Public License v3.0 or any later version.