Anyone that has used Windows 8 for any amount of time has realized something. Where did Microsoft put the shutdown button? You use to be able to find it easily in earlier versions, listed awkwardly under the Start button of course. We all knew though where it was at least. Maybe that is why Microsoft moved it because of the running joke, why put a shutdown under a start button? Now enter Windows 8 and you have opened yourself up to a whole bunch of unnecessary mouse clicks. To simply shutdown your computer you either have to log out first on the new Metro Start Menu, go first to the Charms Menu, or by hitting the hotkey command Windows Key + i, and then clicking the Power button from there.
With Windows 8.1 release this issue has somewhat been resolved due to the massive amounts of complaints that I am sure that Microsoft received surrounding the issue. To shut down your computer in Windows 8.1 you can now right-click on your classic desktop start button and see shutdown options from there, however if you still want a one-click solution read on.
There’s an easier way…
You can quickly, without the need to download or buy any additional software, create a shutdown button for your Windows 8 computer. This button can be placed on both your classic desktop or on the new Metro Start Menu. Let’s begin.
- First go to your classic desktop by clicking the desktop tile from your Metro start menu or by pressing the hotkey command, Windows Key + d.
- From the desktop right-click anywhere on empty space on your wallpaper.
- Rollover “New” with your mouse cursor and click on “Shortcut”.
- The Create Shortcut Dialog box will appear.
- Type in the following command exactly as the figure below displays.
- Shutdown.exe – brings up the shutdown command in Windows.
- The switch “/s” tells the computer to shut down. This can be replaced with an “r” if you wish to restart.
- The switch “/t 00” tells the computer how long before you wish to shut down. In this case the time is set to zero (00 seconds).
- Click Next.
- Now name the shortcut with something you will easily remember, like “shutdown”.
- Click Finish.
- Next right-click on the newly created shortcut on your desktop.
- Click properties. The shortcut properties dialog will appear.
- In the Shortcut properties dialog box click, “Change Icon".
- A dialog box referencing an error will appear. Ignore it and just click OK. The error is telling you that no icon image has yet been assigned for this shortcut, which is why we are now giving it one.
- Select an icon image from the default choices or you could actually select your own by browsing to its location. I chose the power button icon.
- Click OK.
- Finally, right-click on the completed shortcut located on your desktop once again.
- This time click, “Pin to Start”, which will create a new distinguishable shutdown tile on your Windows 8 Metro Start Menu.