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.

nt

where we are expected to support various operating systems. Windows 8 is just one of them.

A version of Windows that needs complex operations to do the simplest basics; now that's real progress.

This smacks of a rushed rollout with flat edges and a chaotic assembly ... leaving us to add basic features like a start button....baaah humbug

I have been watching closely the comments of mainstream tech writers coming up with all these rather convoluted add-ins , process changes etc which when you analyse it for what its worth should have been the starting point for Win 8 development and included on Day 1. I am pretty tired of mainstream technology companies failing to listen to what the mainstream raft of users want and instead choosing to listen to the one percenters who if they had their way would force their views on the world. Windows has spent years educating all its users to use a startup and shutdown process - removing what is familiar and comforting is plain dumb and giving very unhappy users a good reason to go to Apple . Ballmer has to go and go now .

Windows 8 is just not right for desktop business use. square peg in a round hole syndrome.

What tiny amount of money did this save MS? For me it is an interesting way to learn how poorly ideas can be communicated and implemented. It is like watching Dilbert in a live survival tv show except it is my work PC.

Not so happy that I have to type the script but I am SO grateful that Tech Republic is making this available. The 2 books I ordered just to get back to work have nothing to offer at this depth.

Too bad we don't have a second, compatible competitor for MS. I cant run the programming languages I want on Linux or Unix and I loathe Macs for the same reasons I am beginning to loathe this WinMess8 stuff.

MS, I might be ignorant and impatient but that doesn't mean I'm stupid.

I guess I should be happy I still have a 2D screen. 3D might tempt me to post Ballmers photo on the desktop just so I could thunk my finger on his nose to shut my PC down. Id be tempted to call it Thunk the Clown Down Screen.

Windows 8. Evolution gone backwards.

I don't find any of this stuff hard to do in windows 8 - just different. I don't find it any harder than my first iPad, or Blackberry, or Android phone. I've been using Windows 8 for a few months now, with a mouse (I have yet to use it on a touch-screen, but am very curious to try it). I have to admit I'm still learning new things every week, thanks largely to blogs like this. However, I for one would not want to pre-judge things as "harder to do" until I've learned how to do them as intended within the O/S. More often than not, I've found that, once I know how to do them, they're really no harder than Windows 7 or earlier. Just different - but not everyone enjoys having to learn new stuff the way I do...

Apple users have constant changes made to OSX once a year and sometimes sooner and no one ever gripes about it. Sometimes these newer "versions" of OSX add key features and render older systems useless.

Microsoft, on the other hand, changes a few things navigation wise and everyone is up in arms about it. Relax, rightclick the bottom left corner and everything is there people. left click the left corner and all of your most used apps are there.

Dont trash the OS purely because you are refusing to accept minor changes in visual appearance.

Most modern PCs have the ability to go into a very low-power sleep mode and can wake easily by input or schedule. I don't know about other companies, but I have our systems set to do maintenance and such after hours and weekends. With that in mind, our PCs pretty much never shut down--no need to have a power button handy. Mobile devices also basically just sleep when not active. And then there's the whole thing of using physical button(s) (combinations) for powering down, as mentioned by someone else. So, other than shear personal preference, I don't see a particular need for a software power button. Personally, I really don't want a way to over-simply swap users and/or restart. That's something I prefer to leave as a task that requires particular intention and specific procedure, not a "click, click... opps!"

Now, I do understand that some PCs will need a simple, fast way to swap users, such as a kiosk or similar massive-multi-user system, but those are special circumstances and will likely their own custom procedures for handling such things.

I manage a few seminar rooms where the "room computer" is located in a locked AV closet.
Shutting down one of the seminar room computers requires one of my techs to go to the AV closet and press the power button to turn it back on for the next presenter. I know you can get an IP switched power strip but my techs are not always available to turn on the computer physically or remotely. We manage a whole campus.
No matter what I did (posting signs or changing the desktop wallpaper to say "Do not shut this computer off. Please log off and leave the computer running), it was second nature for the user to Click start > Shutdown. Then I replaced the shutdown button with a log off button for everyone but the local administrators. problem solved

How did you replace the shutdown button with a log off button? I have a similar problem with our presentation computers.

Is it W7 better than W8? It is not the question for me! I think Greg selflessly offers his hits and I very appreciate it.

I borrowed my SHUT DOWN and RESTART shortcuts from Win 7 which I generated. Put them on
the Desktop and assigned Keyboard Shortcuts and Icons to both. If I remember, they are in System 32 for both. Same place in Win 7 and Win 8.

What's wrong with System Power Shortcuts that thousands of Windows 8 users downloaded it. It's a desktop application with a Metro style UI.

http://wall.jaysonragasa.net/wall/post/2012/06/17/Windows-8-System-Power-Shortcuts.aspx

I don't understand the problem. I just upgraded a system to Win 8 and I can mouse to the right corner and press power and shutdown from either the desktop or the active tile (metro) or whatever their calling it. So with the old start button I would have to click on it then click on turn off computer and then click on turn off or restart. It seems pretty much the same process.

On regular Windows I have all the programs as shortcuts with an icon on the desktop.
People say how difficult it is to get to the desktop.

As soon as I finished the upgrade, I had a big tile that said Desktop. I then went to apps and made small tiles for my applications that I use. These look a lot like my old shortcuts on my regular desktop. So you either click desktop or click the application tile and you are now in desktop mode. Also my apps are in the lower bar for me to choose from just like on regular windows

Isn't that an extra step? 1. I don't think so. 2. The system boots up in a fraction of the time it took my old windows, so I have time to click on desktop once.

My mother bought a laptop with win8 and no touch interface. I have been trying to find easy ways to help her use mouse [her favorite tool]. I am very grateful for sysop-dr's suggestions. I can teach these to her with no problem!
I hope MSFT understands that a lot more should have been done to pass on simple ways of moving around -- not even touch could help us find the shutdown location. OMG!!! Sigh. I love win8; I am sorry these little difficulties are giving the OS and MSFT such bad press.

Just do ALT+ F4 from the desktop, same as it has been since Windows 3.1.