• Windows 8 Shutdown Shortcut Keys

How to create and add a Shutdown shortcut to the Start screen in Windows 8 How to create a shortcut in Windows 8. On an empty space, do a right-click. Changing shortcut icon. You probably don’t like the default icon for the shortcut. Adding Shutdown button to the Start screen in Windows 8. As the Windows 8 OS got rid of the Start menu, sometimes it is complicated to find the most commonly used shortcuts like shutdown and restart. This tech-recipe is a guide for creating a shortcut for both shutdown and restart in Windows 8. These options will be displayed both on the Windows tiles and in the desktop views.

Nowadays on Windows 7, if I have no mouse on my computer I just press Win Button+->+Enter:

This makes my computer shutdown without needing to use a mouse. However, on Windows 8, I need the mouse to open that charms menu on the right side of the screen, open the 'Settings' tab -> 'Power' -> Then choose for 'Shut down', 'Sleep' or 'Restart':

There is some keyboard shortcut to open these shutdown options on Windows 8 or another other way to do this without a mouse?

Journeyman Geek♦

Windows 8 Shutdown Shortcut Keys

DiogoDiogo

13 Answers

Press Win+D to show the Desktop, then press Alt+F4 to show the shutdown dialog, and finally, press Enter to shut down.

IndrekRy-Ry-

The easy, Win8-only way: Press Win+i, use the arrow keys to pick Power then enter.

The way that works even on NT 4: You can use the Win+R shortcut to open the 'Run' dialogue. Windows has a builtin program, shutdown.exe, which can be used to shutdown (duh), logoff or reboot the computer. shutdown -r -t 0 will immediately start a reboot; shutdown -s -t 0 will immediately start a shutdown. See the output of shutdown /? to know the rest of the options.

Not exactly a shortcut, but a pretty fast way of doing this with only the keyboard would be to use Win+R, then either shutdown /s /t 0 to shutdown or shutdown /r /t 0 to reboot.

Marcks ThomasMarcks Thomas

Set your power settings to have the power button of your computer shut down your PC when pressed.

My variation is to create a Metro tile which shuts down the machine, the benefit is you can tab to your tile, then press enter.

Start on the Windows 8 desktop, or in a new folder - anywhere except in the Start Menu folder!

Right-click, New, Shortcut. Paste the instruction:

Name the shortcut after yourself, e.g. Guy's Shutdown, that way you will recognise it easily!

Use Windows Explorer to navigate to the crucial folder:

Paste your shortcut. (In passing you can see it's not possible to create a new shortcut here)

It's reassuring to see your shortcut amongst the other Apps.

Return to the Metro UI start screen - Windows Key is the quickest way.

Tab, or use the arrow keys, to move to your shutdown tile, press enter.

Guy ThomasGuy Thomas

Shutdown: Win+X, U, U.

Restart: Win+X, U, R.

Credit: User saber, from his/her comment on the original question above.

Ctrl+Alt+Del, Alt+S
Or use Shift+Tab twice and Enter and then use the arrow keys and Enter to choose Shutdown.

Der Hochstapler

Using the Windows 8 settings bar

Press Win+I, use the arrow keys to pick Power then Enter. Choose Shutdown or Restart then Enter.

(8 steps: Win+I, End, Up, Right, Enter, Up, Up, Enter)

Using the shutdown dialog, and hiding all programs

Pressing Alt+F4 closes most Windows programs. If you hide all programs first with Win+D, and activate the Desktop, Alt+F4 brings up the close Windows dialog. If you are in the Metro interface part of Windows 8, you must press Win+D one more time.

(3 or 4 steps: Win+D[, Win+D], Alt+F4, Enter)

Using the Run dialog

Since Windows XP you can use the Win+R shortcut to open the 'Run' dialogue. Windows has a builtin program, shutdown.exe, which can be used to shutdown, logoff or reboot the computer. shutdown -r -t 0 will immediately start a reboot; shutdown -s -t 0 will immediately start a shutdown. See the output of shutdown /? to know the rest of the options. Commands like shutdown.exe -s -t 0 can also be typed or pasted and then executed in the Start screen.

(2 steps if previously and last used command: Win+R, Enter)

Using the Lock screen

You can press Win+L to access the Lock screen. There you can press Shift+Tab to highlight the power button, press Enter and you can select shutdown or reboot with the arrow buttons and then press Enter. You must wait a little before pressing Tab.

(6 steps: Win+L, Shift+Tab, Enter, Up, Up, Enter)

Follow the steps in one of my articles to create your own tile in Windows 8.

1. Go to %Appdata%MicrosoftWindowsStart MenuPrograms
2. Right click > New > Shortcut
3. Enter %windir%system32Shutdown.exe -s -t 0 as the location
4. Give it a name and click Finish
5. Position the icon where you want it:
   

Optional:

1. Right click on the shortcut and select Properties
2. Click the Change Icon... button. (There is a power button icon in %SystemRoot%system32SHELL32.dll

To add the shortcut to the All Apps group:

1. In the shortcut properties, go to the Security tab
2. Add All Application Packages and make sure the Read and Read & execute permissions are enabled

For more information, see http://www.oostdam.info/index.php/sectie-blog/54-windows8/343-windows-8-create-a-shutdown-button

Louis

This is the source code:

It's a small program in C# that displays a dialog to confirm if you want to shutdown your PC. Simply pin it to Start!

Josh

Removed my consumer preview already so I can't check this.

On all other versions of Windows I just repeatedly press Alt+F4 until all windows are closed and the shutdown menu shows. Then I press Enter

Simon VerbekeSimon Verbeke

You can press win+i to directly bring up settings menu, you can do this at desktop or metro screen. Then just click on Power to reboot or shutdown (or use your keyboard's direction key to move the focus to Power and hit Enter). This is probably the fastest path to the power button, without writing your own script.

KoKoKoKo

With Windows 8.1 (or server 2012 R2) you can now right click on the start button or press Win + X and use the shutdown menu:

falterfalter

protected by Community♦Oct 28 '12 at 19:45

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