Discussion on:

Shutdown Windows 8 right from the desktop

Windows has had hot keys forever and they still exist in Windows 8. For shutting down from the desktop in Windows 8 (and 7) the easiest way is select the desktop and press + then pick from the dialog's drop down list restart or shutdown or log out.
Also remember alt tab for switching apps and if you are using a mouse in the touch interface scrolling the mouse wheel does the same things you would do when swiping the screen with your finger.
SO when in the desktop and you want to start a program, hit windows key to get to start screen, then scroll with your mouse wheel to the program you want to open and click it to open it. The ones you use regularly right click them in start screen and pin to task bar.
Follow this advice and Windows 8 can be as easy to use on a mouse and keyboard system as Windows 7 (unless you want it to stay hard to use in your world.)

Thanks, that's really useful.
I'd never tried Alt+F4 on the Desktop in any version of Windows. I've just replaced my keyboard with one that doesn't have a sleep button and you've just made my life much easier. I was looking at setting up some desktop icons to do just this - thanks for saving me the effort!

You can also use Ctrl+Alt+Del to access the Power Icon on the displayed screen plus it will work from the Start Screen or while in apps opened from the Start Screen.

Yes very use ful

In my comment above it threw away the alt+f4 because they were surrounded with angle brackets.... Can a moderator add them back in please?

Although I'll probably use the suggestion from @sysop-dr Desktop for my own use, I'm sure many of my customers will be grateful for your idea of a toolbar in the future as they migrate to Windows 8. Many thanks.

If you like to have both Sleep and Hibernate available you can download PsShutdown from SysInternals and then use
"PsShutdown /d /v 0" for Sleep
"PsShutdown /h /v 0" for Hibernate.

The "/v 0" option simply stops it throwing a dialog box at you.

Thanks for this and the other articles; it's too bad Microsoft has decided to force such changes in UI on its customers...we're not all phone-poking junkies.

Somewhere along the way we have LOST the ON/OFF button.
Turning on & off a machine was once as simple and straight forward as a light switch.

also does any one younger than me remember the keyboard key "Prt Scr" ?
The "PrtScr" use to do something in the computer world.

I regularly change the power options for my customers so that pressing the power button shuts the machine down rather than putting it to sleep.

I have been saying the same thing... just use the Computer's built in power button. either people have tunnel vision, or they want to deter people from windows 8 since it is a threat to other systems.. I keep reading about all these types of complaints and most are just not valid.

Read this article. Instead of just saying, "Windows 8 sucks!" He gives examples - a lot of them.
http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/philg/2012/12/05/christmas-gift-for-someone-you-hate-windows-8/

It takes a screen shot.
Then you can paste it into MS Paint. I used to use it until Windows included the Snipping Tool.

PrtScr is on my keyboard and it still works. Press it, open MS Word and click Control-V and you have an image of the desktop. Same for Acrobat and Photoshop.

WPee is referring to the original use of the Prt Scr key. Back in the text-only mainframe days, pressing that key sent the characters displayed on the screen directly to the printer. Hence the name 'PRINT Screen', not 'Capture Screen' or 'Buffer Screen'.

The key will still direct the screen contents to a printer, but only in terminal emulation programs.

Alt "PrtScr" copies the active window to the clipboard and you can paste the copy into most applications. Ctrl "PrtScr" copies the display to the clipboard and you can paste the copy wherever, too. You can put it into PowerPoint and edit it or some other imaging s/w program. BTW, I'm 68.

I really like how you made the options really slick in the taskbar but don't forget that a shutdown button already exists on Windows 8 devices. It's the hardware button which, by default, runs the shutdown command when you tap it. It's how I have taught people to shutdown their machines since Windows 95 (I think).

The first poster also mentioned pressing Alt-F4 from the desktop. That is another good option. Both these shortcuts have worked for the last several versions of Windows.

In Windows 7 it's Start button > Shutdown. In Windows 8 it's Charms > Power > Shutdown. I guess all they need to do is figure out a way to shorten the process by one click. A Shutdown icon right in plain sight? Most of the non-geeks I know will be accidentally hitting that button at least once a day. Funny at the start but I can see that joke getting old quick. LOL

NT

I don't know about other computers, but the Acer Aspire 1 (netbook with Win 8 core) I just bought already has a shutdown button pinned to the task bar: it came that way. I click on it and get a list of what I want to do. Then I can choose from Sleep, Hibernate, Restart, and Shut Down. There's no Log Off icon.

Having to scroll to the right with a bunch of gelatinous bouncing tile icons on the Start screen is a major pain. MS should eliminate that and allow users to choose to avoid a smartphone touchscreen interface if we want to. I really dislike having to be a slave to someone else's idea of what's good and bad.

i keep seeing posts focussing on bringing back the old behaviour ad wonder why. just move on folks. get used to the new way of doing things as we always did from DOS to windows.