You will need to use the windows program shutdown.exe (which is normally located in C:\Windows\System32\) and its parameters.
The table below is a shortened list of the parameters needed for instant shutdown and/or restart plus the help parameter to display all the parameters defined within your windows system.
|
Parameter |
Description |
|
/s |
Shuts down the computer. |
|
/r |
Restarts the computer after shutdown. |
|
/t <sec> |
Sets the time-out period or delay to sec (seconds) before a restart or shutdown. This causes a warning to display on the local console. You can specify 0-600 seconds. If you do not use /t, the time-out period is 30 seconds by default. |
|
/? |
Displays help at the command prompt, including a list of the major and minor reasons that are defined on your local computer. |
This is what the instant shutdown command line would look like:
C:\Windows\System32\shutdown.exe /s /t 0
And the instant reboot command line would look like this:
C:\Windows\System32\shutdown.exe /r /t 0
As you can see the only difference is the use of “/s” or “/r” parameter
Now that we know what to use, how do we get it onto the desktop?
Easy! By creating a desktop shortcut icon containing the shutdown/restart command line as follows.
- Right click anywhere on an empty space on your desktop to open a menu where you can find “New”.
- Hover over “New” and another menu appear, near the top of this is “Shortcut”
- Select/Click on “Shortcut” to open the Shortcut creation wizard.
- Enter your command line and parameters
- Click Next
- Type a title/name for this shortcut – e.g. “Shutdown”
- And click Finish
I like to have a pretty self-explanatory icon’s because it’s easier to find than reading the titles – and here is how to do this:
- Right click on the Shutdown icon, to open a menu
- Select and click on “Properties” to open the “Shutdown Properties” window
- It should automatically open in the “Shortcut” tab where you will find – near the bottom – the Change Icon… button.
- Click the Change Icon… and another window with lots of icons opens.
- Scroll through these until you find an icon you like.
- Click on it; followed by clicking the OK button to close that window.
- Now all you have to do is click the OK button in the “Properties”
window and that’s it.
One last thing:
You might also want place Shutdown icon on your “Taskbar” and/or your “Start menu”
this action is called “Pin to …” – and here is how to do this:
- Right click on the Shutdown icon (as before), to open a menu
- This time you are looking for “Pin to Taskbar” or “Pin to Start Menu” (near the top)
- Just click either and that’s it.
Note you don’t lose the original shortcut.
To unpin an icon from the taskbar/start menu, just right click on it and click “Unpin this program from Taskbar” or “Unpin from Start Menu” and they are gone; not uninstalled nor deleted because what you unpinned was a shortcut and NOT the actual item.
