I’m sure most of you have heard of programs that can shut down your computer down at a certain time for you, but how about something that will start it up at a specified time? You can use the Windows XP Scheduled Tasks Wizard to do this quickly and easily. To do this:

1.) Go to “Start–>All Programs–>Accessories–>System Tools” and click on “Scheduled Tasks”
2.) In the new window, double-click “Add Scheduled Task”. This will open the wizard.
3.) Go through the steps (Browse for the program you want to wake
Windows to run, select how often you are going to want Windows
to boot for this program, enter your logon password, and at the
last Window, select “Open Advanced Properties for This Task When I Click
Finish”.) and hit Finish at the end.
4.) When the new window opens, click the “Settings” tab, select the
settings you want, and make sure to check the box that says
“Wake the computer to run this task”.
5.) Now click on the “Schedule” tab and select “Daily”, “Weekly”,
“Monthly”, or “Once” for when you want to have the task occur.
6.) Choose the specific date and time for the boot, click “Apply”, and then click “OK”.

Important: Make sure that you hibernate the computer instead of shutting it off. If you chose to have it boot daily for something like defragmenting, you may want to get used to hibernating. Hibernation copies everything from the RAM to the Hard Disk so that energy may be saved. If you do not see a hibernation button in your shut down menu, simply hold down shift when you go to shut down and the hibernate button will appear. Try experimenting with the scheduled tasks wizard to see what you can get done while away from your computer.