Shut Down, Restart, Sleep & Hibernate Shortcuts!!

If you are bored with shut down option of your Windows, this post is for you. Not only shut down, this post will guide you create shortcuts for restart, sleep, hibernate and lock too. After creating the shortcuts you can keep them either on desktop, task bar or start menu. And this post is gonna be the most useful topic for Windows 8 users who face problem while shutting down or hibernating their PCs. 

Well this trick can be applied to Windows XP, 7 and 8. And I am writing this post in Windows 8. If any step is not matched with earlier version of Windows, then I apologize. 

Let's begin with Shut Down options of Windows 8: 

• Windows Charm: As made for tablet computers, Windows Charm is a touch friendly feature of Windows 8. If you tap your finger at the upper right corner you will get this in touch devices. In desktop, move your mouse pointed to the upper right corner to open the Charm. Or you can also press Windows Key + C to open the charm. Then hit on the Settings button and click on Power. Now you get the Sleep, Hibernate, Shut Down and Restart options. Look at the image below. 

• Alt + F4: This is a popular shortcut to exit from many programs. But if you wanna shut down or restart your Windows by pressing Alt + F4, then you have to go to the desktop. In that time all other programs should be minimized. First you have to press Windows + D to minimize all other programs. Now press Alt + F4. You will get Shut Down Windows Menu. Choose an option and hit OK. 

And this time I can't remember any other shut down options available for Windows 8. And now I'd like to start writing how to create Shut Down, Restart and Sleep shortcuts. 

Creating Shortcuts: 

The procedure is similar for Shut Down, Restart, Sleep and Hibernate. You just need to change the code. Let's start - 

• Go to Desktop by pressing Windows + D.

• Click right mouse button and choose New > Shortcut.

• You will get the Create Shortcut window as the image below.

• To create Shutdown shortcut, type this code - Shutdown.exe -s -t 00

• Press Next and you will get another window to rename the shortcut. ie. Shutdown. 

Now you will get Shut Down shortcut on Desktop. Double Click on it to turn off your PC. If you're using Windows 7 or 8 you can keep this shortcut in Task Bar or Start Menu. 

Right Click on the Shortcut > Choose Pin to Start/ Taskbar. I recommend you to keep it in the task bar for quick access. 

Note: Windows XP users will not be able to create task bar shortcut. 

By the same way, you can create shortcuts for Restart, Sleep, Hibernate and Lock. Just replace the code: 

• Restart: Shutdown.exe -r -t 00

• Sleep: rundll32.exe powrprof.dll,SetSuspendState 0,1,0  

• Hibernate: rundll32.exe PowrProf.dll,SetSuspendState

• Lock: Rundll32.exe User32.dll,LockWorkStation

Customize the Icons: 

After creating the shortcuts you will just get a blank icon with a shortcut mark. And this looks very odd. Let's use a custom icon. 

Right click on your Shutdown shortcut from the Desktop > Properties > Shortcut > Change Icon > Browse > Choose any of the icons from your System/ Or browse for a icon from your Hard Disk. 

Note: If you have your own icons then you can use it too. But it should be an icon format image. I mean the extension will be like image.ico. 

Here I've made some icons for you. You can use these as Shut Down, Hibernate and Restart Icons. After changing the icon and setting them to the taskbar, I've got the following looks. 

You can also reposition the shortcuts by dragging them. Click on a shortcut and move it to right or left by dragging. And your PC will shut down or hibernate just by a single click. You can also use Keyboard Shortcuts! 

Suppose shutdown is your first icon on taskbar. Press Windows + 1 to turn off your PC.

If restart is the second, then press Windows + 2 to restart your PC. 

 

Save these images on your hard disk if you like. Right click on the image and Save as PNG. 

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