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Instant Shutdown in Windows Vista – Video Tip

Many moons ago, I shared with you a tip on how to create a desktop icon to shutdown Windows XP instantly. It’s about time that I share with you the same tip applied to Windows Vista. Here’s how it is done:

  1. RIGHT Click on a blank part of your desktop
  2. Click New –> Shortcut
  3. Type the following phrase EXACTLY as shown in the box (or better yet, Copy and Paste it):    %SystemRoot%\System32\shutdown.exe /s
  4. Click Next
  5. Type a name for your shortcut like Shutdown, It’s Over, Time to Go…you choose
  6. Click Finish
  7. Now RIGHT click on the new shortcut you created
  8. Click Properties
  9. Click Change icon (you might get an error message, just click OK)
  10. Click an icon you want to use for the shutdown
  11. Click OK

You can see all these steps in action in the video below AND get a bonus tip of how to change the action of the little power button on the start menu.

Related articles:

  1. Desktop Shortcuts Make Computing Easier – Video Tip
  2. Copy Shortcut for a program to other Windows’ Users
  3. Drag and Drop
  4. Add a new entry to the Send To menu
  5. Create a new toolbar in Windows – Video Tip

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This entry was posted on Tuesday, September 30th, 2008 at 6:44 pm and is filed under Windows Tips. You can follow any comments to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a comment, or trackback from your own site.

6 comments

  1. Anonymous
    September 30, 2008 at 9:38 pm

    Is there one for hibrenate also!
    Chuck

    Reply
  2. Rick
    September 30, 2008 at 10:36 pm

    In Step 3 above, you can substitute the following commands:

    Hibernate: %SystemRoot%\System32\shutdown.exe /h

    Log off: %SystemRoot%\System32\shutdown.exe /l

    Restart: %SystemRoot%\System32\shutdown.exe /r

    Reply
  3. Anonymous
    January 11, 2009 at 8:18 pm

    Rick, I tried this command line on an XP machine (dumb, dumb, dumb) and now the machine will not shutdown, but restarts. I do not have Roxio installed and have already gone through the Microsoft knowledge base without any success. Any suggestions?

    Alec

    Reply
  4. Anonymous
    October 1, 2008 at 7:55 am

    Your knowledge amazes me sometimes. Thanks Rick, you truly ARE the BEST!

    J.

    Reply
  5. Anonymous
    October 5, 2008 at 5:40 pm

    I thank I worte to you about this before, but I missed a answer. How do you find the hidden files a clean them out in vista. I would like to know.

    Thank you

    Lana

    Reply
  6. Rick
    January 11, 2009 at 11:14 pm

    Here’s the XP tip for instant shutdown: helpmerick.com/node/153

    Reply

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