09.14
A bit of an annoyance in the Windows 8 Developer Preview release is the lack of a quick shutdown tile. Yes, you can go to command prompt and run the shutdown command but that’s not exactly user friendly.
So here’s my tested fix to add a Shutdown tile to the Metro UI.
- Create a shortcut called Shutdown that runs the command C:\windows\system32\shutdown /s /t 0
- Move this shortcut into C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs (the location of the start menu). Anything in here can be pinned to the Start Screen.
- Go to the Start Screen, and into the Search charm.
- Don’t search; browse through the tiles and find your Shutdown shortcut, now visible as a tile.
- Select it (you tug it down slightly), and select pin from the bar in the bottom.
Now you have a working Shutdown tile that will shut down your Windows 8 machine with no delays or requests for confirmation. Any problems with your shortcut will probably open Windows Explorer and bring you to the folder that the shortcut is in.
I haven’t tested it yet, but you probably can do the same for a Restart tile by using a shortcut to C:\windows\system32\shutdown /r /t 0.
If you do want the official way to shutdown/restart/Sleep, then bring up the Charms bar, hit Settings, and touch Power.
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… or you just hit [windows]-i and push the power button…?
That twisting move gives us the old CTRL ALT DEL. Still quicker to hit the tile.
Is there a way to add something that isn’t an .EXE like a .BAT?
Yup, just create a shortcut to it like in this example.
When RDPing into a Win8 machine (at least theis latest preview) the power button only allows ‘disconnect’ so your tile idea is very useful.