PC Power Tips

One of the things that I find annoying about Windows XP is the Shutdown and Restart process.  It actually requires three steps instead of one.  First you have to click “Start”, then click “Turn Off Computer”, and then finally you have to click “Turn Off”.  I think that's to many clicks and a lot of unnecessary mouse movement.  Since I use a wireless optical mouse, it also means using up the batteries slightly faster.  Instead of going through all these steps every time I turn off or restart the computer, I have created desktop shortcuts to do it for me with one click of the mouse.  I have both a Restart and Shutdown icon on my desktop, but I'll also tell you how to make one for logging off.

Here's how to create a desktop shortcut for Shutdown.

1. Right Click on an open area of the Desktop to display the menu.
2. Select “New” and from it's sub menu select “Shortcut”.  A shortcut wizard will appear.
3. In the area where it ask you to type the location of the item type “shutdown -s -t 00” (without quotes) then click next.
4. Now type a name for the shortcut.  This can be any name you like, but I used Shutdown.
5. Click Finish.

To make one for Restart and Log Off the steps are the same except for step 3.  Here's what to type instead of “shutdown -s -t 00”.

To Restart type “shutdown -r -t 00”.

To Log Off type “shutdown -l -t 00”.

As a fun thing to do you can find out what all these weird dashes and letters actually mean by looking at the command prompt.  Here's how.

1. Click “Start” then “Run” (or hold Windows key and hit R).
2. Where it says “Open” type “cmd” and hit “Enter” to bring up the command prompt.
3. To display the various shutdown options type “shutdown” and hit “Enter”.

There is one other thing you will probably want to do to customize these shortcuts.  Give them an icon.  To do this, right click on the icon and select “Properties”.  Click on the tab at the top that says “Shortcut” and then click the button that says “Change Icon”.  Here you can change it to one of Windows icons, or find one on your hard drive by clicking “Browse” and then navigating to the icon of your choice.  Pick one you like and click “OK”.  Then click “OK” again in the “Shortcut Properties” box.  All Done. 😉

Hopefully this will save you a little bit of time, it does me.  Two extra clicks don't seem like much, but when you can accomplish the same thing by clicking on a desktop icon you really notice a difference.