How To Add One Click Shutdown, Restart and Sleep In Windows 8

Gemboel Technology - This tutorial explains ways to shut down, restart, sleep and hibernate in Windows 8 – and add a one click option for each.

The first thing new Windows 8 users will notice is the tiled Start screen – the second, after navigating to the traditional Desktop, is the lack of a ‘Start’ button/orb.

No Start Menu means that the process to shut down, restart and sleep in Windows 8 is necessarily different from the last decade’s versions of Windows.

We’ll review first how to access the existing shut down features in Windows 8 and then explain how to add single click options if you want to speed up the process.

Existing Ways To Select Shut Down Options in Windows 8

There are a variety of ways to access the shut down features in Windows 8 – some quicker than others:

• The ‘standard’ way – move your mouse to the top or bottom right of the Desktop to display the pop-out Charms menu (or press Windows key + c). Select ‘Settings’ then ‘Power’ and choose to Sleep, Shut Down or Restart.
• Go straight to the Settings Charm by pressing Windows + i then select ‘Power’ and choose to Sleep, Shut Down or Restart.
• Press ALT + F4 to display the (very) traditional Shut Down menu and choose to Sleep, Shut Down or Restart – also provides options to Switch User or Sign Out (log off).
• CTRL + ALT + DEL brings up a screen to Lock, Switch User, Sign Out etc but there is also a Power icon in the bottom right corner – click it to choose to Sleep, Shut Down or Restart.
• Simply pressing the Power button (or closing the laptop lid) may put the computer into Sleep mode (or Shut Down or Hibernate) – the exact action will depend on how Power Options are configured.

Add One Click Shutdown In Windows 8

If you want single click options to shut down (or restart, sleep or hibernate) the computer, it is possible to do this in Windows 8 via the following procedure – we’ll look at Shut Down first:

Tip: you can also use these steps to add one click power event options to XP, Vista or Windows 7 (except for step 8 as the Start Screen is unique to Windows 8).

1. Right click an empty space on the Desktop and choose ‘New’ then ‘Shortcut’

2. In the location box type “shutdown /s /t 0” without the “” (the 0 is a zero)

3. Click ‘Next’ and type a name for the shortcut (e.g. Shut Down) then click ‘Finish’ to create the new desktop shortcut – drag and drop it to wherever you wish on the desktop.

4. To change the shortcut’s icon, right click it and choose ‘Properties’ to open the Properties window:

5. Click the ‘Change Icon’ button then press ‘OK’ in the warning box that says Shutdown.exe has no icons:

6. Choose an icon from the list of possible icons (we chose the red Power button) then press OK twice:

Your desktop shortcut should now have the chosen icon labeled Shut Down, or whatever you called it.

Double clicking this desktop shortcut will shut down the computer – use it to add a single click option in the next steps:

7. To pin this shortcut to your Taskbar – right click the shortcut and select ‘Pin to Taskbar’. Click it once to shut down.

Desktop shortcut and Pinned to Taskbar

8. To pin the shortcut to your Start Screen – right click the desktop shortcut and select ‘Pin to Start’. Press the Windows key to switch to the Start Screen and see this new Shutdown icon – drag and drop it to a more noticeable position on the Start Screen if you wish. Click it once to shut down.

Start Screen shortcut

Add One Click Restart, Sleep or Hibernate In Windows 8

The above steps add a one click Shutdown to Windows 8. If you want to add similar one click shortcuts to Restart, Sleep or Hibernate, repeat the same process but in Step 2 substitute the typed command as follows:

• Restart – shutdown /r /t 0
• Sleep – rundll32.exe powrprof.dll,SetSuspendState 0,1,0
• Hibernate – shutdown /h

Conclusion

These 4 shortcuts add one click Shutdown, Restart, Sleep and Hibernate options to Windows 8 (and earlier).

You can use one or more of them to complement the existing options (e.g. pressing the Power button or closing the lid) – they’re quicker than navigating through Windows 8 Charms. - Gemboel Technology

Source : http://techlogon.com/