Windows XP Logo

Want to be able to click a button on your desktop to shutdown your computer instead of having to click “Start -> Turn Off Computer -> Turn Off” every single time? All you have to do is create a shortcut on your desktop that points to shutdown.exe with the right switches. When you have finished it could look something like this…

Shutdwon and restart button son desktop. or Restart and shutdown buttons

Creating a Shutdown button:

Right click the desktop and select new -> shortcut and the Create Shortcut wizard will appear. Click the browse button and browse to C:\WINDOWS\system32\shutdown.exe and click OK…

Now add the switches by typing “-s -t 0″ (without quotes, zero not the letter o, and  spaces between -s & -t & 0) to the end of the text in the location box as shown below…



Now click next and finish. You will now have a functioning but ugly shutdown button on your desktop…

Ugly restart button

To make it look nicer rename the shortcut then right click, select properties, and select Change Icon to select a better icon.

Create a Restart button:

It might seem a little strange but Windows XP restarts using the same shutdown.exe file. To create a restart button follow the same steps above but use a -r switch instead of a -s switch…

After creating both shortcuts, renaming them and changing the icons, you should have something like this…

Shutdwon and restart button son desktop. or Restart and shutdown buttons

Shutdown.exe switches: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/317371