How To Add One Click Shutdown, Restart and Sleep In Windows 8

How to add a one click option to shut down, restart, sleep or hibernate in Windows 8. The first thing new Windows 8 users will notice is the tiled Start screen. The second, after navigating to the traditional Desktop, is the lack of a ‘Start’ button/orb. No Start Menu means that the process to shut down, restart and sleep in Windows 8 is necessarily different from the last decade’s versions of Windows.

We’ll review first how to access the existing shut down features in Windows 8 and then explain how to add single click options if you want to speed up the process.

Existing Ways To Shut Down Options in Windows 8 – There are a variety of ways to access the shut down features in Windows 8 – some quicker than others:

  • The ‘standard’ way – move your mouse to the top or bottom right of the Desktop to display the pop-out Charms menu (or press Windows key + c). Select ‘Settings’ then ‘Power’ and choose to Sleep, Shut Down or Restart.
  • Go straight to the Settings Charm by pressing Windows + i then select ‘Power’ and choose to Sleep, Shut Down or Restart.
  • Press ALT + F4 to display the (very) traditional Shut Down menu and choose to Sleep, Shut Down or Restart – also provides options to Switch User or Sign Out (log off).
  • CTRL + ALT + DEL brings up a screen to Lock, Switch User, Sign Out etc but there is also a Power icon in the bottom right corner – click it to choose to Sleep, Shut Down or Restart.
  • Simply pressing the Power button (or closing the laptop lid) may put the computer into Sleep mode (or Shut Down or Hibernate) – the exact action will depend on how Power Options are configured.

Add One Click Shutdown In Windows 8 – If you want to add single click options to shut down (or restart, sleep or hibernate), it is possible to do this in Windows 8 via the following procedure – we’ll look at Shut Down first:

Tip: you can also use these steps to add one click power event options to XP, Vista or Windows 7 (except for step 8 as the Start Screen is unique to Windows 8).

1. Right click an empty space on the Desktop and choose ‘New’ then ‘Shortcut’
2. In the location box type “shutdown /s /t 0” without the “” (the 0 is a zero)

W8start1

3. Click ‘Next’ and type a name for the shortcut (e.g. Shut Down) then select ‘Finish’ to create the new desktop shortcut – drag and drop it to wherever you wish on the desktop.
4. To change the shortcut’s icon, right click it and choose ‘Properties’ to open the Properties window:

W8start2

5. Select the ‘Change Icon’ button then press ‘OK’ in the warning box that says Shutdown.exe has no icons:

W8start3

6. Choose an icon from the list of possible icons (we chose the red Power button) then press OK twice:

W8start4

Your desktop shortcut should now have the chosen icon labeled Shut Down, or whatever you called it. Double clicking this desktop shortcut will shut down the computer – use it to add a single click option in the next steps:

7. To pin this shortcut to your Taskbar – right click the shortcut and select ‘Pin to Taskbar’. Press it once to shut down.

W8start5
Desktop shortcut and Pinned to Taskbar

8. To pin the shortcut to your Start Screen – right click the desktop shortcut and select ‘Pin to Start’. Press the Windows key to switch to the Start Screen and see this new Shutdown icon – drag and drop it to a more noticeable position on the Start Screen if you wish. Press it once to shut down.

W8start6
Start Screen shortcut

Add One Click Restart, Sleep or Hibernate In Windows 8

The above steps add a one click Shutdown to Windows 8. If you want to add a similar shortcut to Restart, Sleep or Hibernate, repeat the same process but in Step 2 substitute the typed command with the following:

  • Restart – shutdown /r /t 0
  • Sleep – rundll32.exe powrprof.dll,SetSuspendState 0,1,0

Note: Hibernation must be disabled for this command to work or it will just Hibernate instead of Sleep. To Disable Hibernation – display the pop-out Charms menu and select Search (or press Windows key + q). Type CMD then right click the Command Prompt app and select ‘Run as administrator’ from the panel at the bottom to open an elevated Command Prompt.

Select ‘Yes’ if a User Account Control warning appears. In the Command Prompt, type “powercfg -h off” without the “” and press Enter to disable Hibernation.

  • Hibernate – shutdown /h

Note: Hibernation must be enabled for this command to work. To Enable Hibernation – follow the guide above that was used to disable hibernation but, when typing the command, replace ‘off’ with ‘on’ to enable hibernation i.e. “powercfg -h on”.

Conclusion

These 4 shortcuts add one click Shutdown, Restart, Sleep or Hibernate options to Windows 8 (and earlier).You can use them to complement the existing options (e.g. pressing the Power button or closing the lid) – they’re quicker than navigating through Windows 8 Charms.

8 thoughts on “How To Add One Click Shutdown, Restart and Sleep In Windows 8”

  1. Thanks! I now have a red, perfectly functioning one-click “Power Down” button on my taskbar in Windows 10! I LOVE IT! Why couldn’t Microsoft include this in Win 10?

  2. SleepComp.vbs

    English Version:
    must be: WshShell.SendKeys “ss”

    Polish Version:
    must be: WshShell.SendKeys “uu”

    ——————————
    Dim objShell
    Set objShell = CreateObject(“Shell.Application”)
    objShell.ShutdownWindows
    set objShell = nothing
    Set WshShell = CreateObject(“WScript.Shell”)
    With objShell
    WScript.Sleep 200
    WshShell.AppActivate “Shut Down Windows”
    WshShell.SendKeys “ss”
    WshShell.SendKeys “{TAB}”
    WshShell.SendKeys “{Enter}”
    End With
    Set objShell=Nothing

  3. I tried the “SLEEP” option but it didn’t work for me, all it did was shutdown the computer instead of putting it to sleep.

    • @Luis – if you have Hibernation enabled it will Hibernate instead of sleep (see the Note: in the article). If not, I’m not sure why it doesn’t work for you, sorry – works on every W8 PC I have tested on.

    • Thanks for raising this issue Dan.

      I have updated the article to note that the Sleep shortcut works only if you have hibernation disabled – if hibernation is enabled it does indeed seem to take over and hibernate instead

Comments are closed.