Windows 7 – Shutdown and Restart Shortcut

Tired of using couple of steps to Shutdown or Restart Windows 7? You can create a shortcut to shutdown or restart Windows 7 by the following steps.

• Right-click on the Desktop region and select New > Shortcut. Create Shortcut wizard appears.
• Enter the following in the box shutdown -s -t 10. This is shown in the screen shot. Click Next.

-s denotes shutdown and -t denotes the time in seconds for the shutdown (10 seconds in this example). The entire usage for shutdown.exe command is given in a subsequent section.

• Enter a name for the shortcut say, Shutdown.
• Click Finish to create the shortcut. A shortcut is now created in your Desktop. Note that the shortcut has a generic icon displayed. Like to change the icon?
• Right-click on the shortcut and choose <Properties> button. Properties window appears.
• Choose <Change Icon> button.
• Click the Browse button and select an icon of your choice. Click <OK>.
• Choose <Apply> to finish. You can also drag this icon to Quick Launch toolbar.
• Click the Shutdown icon to shutdown your computer. Ofcourse, ensure all work is saved – setting a reasonable time for shutdown will also give you a chance to save any unsaved work at the end as there is no cancel option once you have initiated the shutdown.

Shutdown Usage

Usage for various arguments is given below.

 

[highlight]C:\Users\tsc>shutdown
Usage: shutdown [/i | /l | /s | /r | /g | /a | /p | /h | /e] [/f]
[/m \\computer][/t xxx][/d [p|u:]xx:yy [/c "comment"]]

No args    Display help. This is the same as typing /?.
/?         Display help. This is the same as not typing any options.
/i         Display the graphical user interface (GUI).
This must be the first option.
/l         Log off. This cannot be used with /m or /d options.
/s         Shutdown the computer.
/r         Shutdown and restart the computer.
/g         Shutdown and restart the computer. After the system is
rebooted, restart any registered applications.
/a         Abort a system shutdown.
This can only be used during the time-out period.
/p         Turn off the local computer with no time-out or warning.
Can be used with /d and /f options.
/h         Hibernate the local computer.
Can be used with the /f option.
/e         Document the reason for an unexpected shutdown of a computer.
/m \\computer Specify the target computer.
/t xxx     Set the time-out period before shutdown to xxx seconds.
The valid range is 0-315360000 (10 years), with a default of 30.
If the timeout period is greater than 0, the /f parameter is
implied.
/c “comment” Comment on the reason for the restart or shutdown.
Maximum of 512 characters allowed.
/f         Force running applications to close without forewarning users.
The /f parameter is implied when a value greater than 0 is
specified for the /t parameter.
/d [p|u:]xx:yy  Provide the reason for the restart or shutdown.
p indicates that the restart or shutdown is planned.
u indicates that the reason is user defined.
If neither p nor u is specified the restart or shutdown is
unplanned.
xx is the major reason number (positive integer less than 256).
yy is the minor reason number (positive integer less than 65536).

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Shortcut to Restart

• The steps to create a Restart shortcut are the same as above with the following usage

shutdown -r -t 10 (-r denotes restart option and -t denotes the time in seconds for the restart).