Shut down, Restart, or Log Off Windows 8 with one click

Finding it cumbersome to shutdown, restart, or log off your computer on Windows 8? If so, then here are a few tricks that can help you run those three essential commands with just a single click.

Windows 8 brought a lot of changes and one of them is letting go of the traditional Start Menu that gives quick access to programs and commands. The result is a more complicated way of shutting down or restarting your machine. The good news is there’s a way of making it easier through the use of shortcuts. Here’s how to do it:

Shut down

The first thing you need to do is create a shortcut by right-clicking on your Desktop, click New -> Shortcut, then type in command below as the location of the item:

shutdown /s /t 0 (That’s the number zero and not the letter O.)

Now click Next, name the shortcut “Shut down” (or whatever you like), then hit Finish.

The next step is to change the icon of the shortcut to make it easier to identify. To do so just right click on the shortcut, click Properties, then click Change icon. Select the icon that you want, click OK, Apply, then click OK.

Running the shortcut from the desktop requires a double click, so to make it run with a single click just drag it in the Taskbar and click on it from there. That’s it, you’re done!

For the Restart and Log Off, just repeat the instructions above and use the commands below:

Restart: shutdown -r -t 0

Log Off: shutdown -l

This trick should save you a couple of seconds. It might be one of the oldest tricks in the book, but hey, it works. :)