One complaint I hear repeatedly about the new Start screen is that it's too hard to shut down.
The Power button, with its Sleep, Shut Down, and Restart options, is available at bottom of the Settings pane. If you want a one-click option on the Start screen, you can create custom shortcuts that use the built-in Windows Shutdown command. Here's how:
1. Right-click an empty space on the desktop and then click New, Shortcut.
2. In the Create Shortcut dialog box shown here, enter one of the following two commands:
For a quick shutdown, use shutdown /s /t 5
For a quick restart, use shutdown /r /t 5
By default, the Shutdown command waits 30 seconds to execute your command. That's too long, so I end each shortcut with the /t switch followed by the number 5, which changes the timeout to 5 seconds.
3. Click Next to save the command and enter a name for the shortcut: Shut Down or Restart.
On the next screen, I show how to assign a custom icon to the shortcut.
Join Discussion