17

Some time ago I installed Windows 8 64bit RTM version (as a student I had access to it before premiere). What I discovered is that "shutdown" doesn't work as expected. When I want to shutdown the computer it simply logs me out. In order to turn off my machine I have to click "restart" and then press the physical power button. I installed some updates but this issue is still not resolved. Is there any way to shutdown the computer in a normal way?

Note: This is regarding the software shutdown (e.g. Settings > Power > Shutdown), not what the physical power button is mapped to.

ernie
  • 6,323
Yob
  • 370
  • What do you mean when you say the shutdown button? Are you referring to a physical button on your laptop or desktop, or Settings > Power > Shutdown? – ernie Nov 08 '12 at 16:44
  • is the shutdown button you're talking about a physical button on your computer, or a button on the screen similar to the one which appears in the lower right corner when pressing Ctrl+Alt+Delte? – phaz Nov 08 '12 at 16:45
  • 1
    Settings -> Power -> Shutdown – Yob Nov 08 '12 at 16:46
  • It seems all the answers thus far are addressing the physical button, which is not what you're referring to - you may want to edit your question to better reflect this. In any case, what behavior did you see when you did Settings > Power > Shutdown? You mention being logged off - did the system then power down, did you get the lock screen, system rebooted? Some other behavior? – ernie Nov 08 '12 at 21:45
  • @Yob updated my answer, see below – corwin01 Nov 09 '12 at 01:01

5 Answers5

19

Windows 8 does not shutdown like it used to. Now, shutdown is called hybrid boot, which is basically log off + hibernate. This enables Windowes to start-up more quickly as well as start apps more quickly.

If you want to disable this behavior and go back to the old shutdown behavior, do this:

  1. Open Start > Control Panel.
  2. Navigate to Hardware and Sound > Power Options.
  3. ON LHS , click on “Choose what the power button does”.
  4. Click on “Change settings that are currently unavailable”.
  5. Now at the bottom, you will be able to disable hybrid boot.

Edit: Try this to add a tile to shutdown with the old behavior.

Adapted from Ben Oostdam's blog.

  1. Go to %Appdata%\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs.
  2. Right click > New > Shortcut.
  3. Enter %windir%\system32\Shutdown.exe -s -t 00 as the location. New Shortcut
  4. Give it a name and click Finish. Finish
  5. Position the icon where you want it:
    Shutdown Metro

Optional:

  1. Right click on the shortcut and select Properties.
  2. Click the Change Icon... button. (There is a power button icon in %SystemRoot%\system32\SHELL32.dll) Shutdown icon

To add the shortcut to the All Apps group:

  1. In the shortcut properties, go to the Security tab.
  2. Add All Application Packages and make sure the Read and Read & execute permissions are enabled.
HaydnWVN
  • 3,266
corwin01
  • 1,875
5

Try Control Panel -> Hardware and Sound -> Power Options.

enter image description here

This will allow you to change the behavior of the power button to power down the machine (instead of hibernate). Depending on configuration you may need to enable the "Change settings that are currently unavailable". (in green)

enter image description here

jdh
  • 7,083
5

There are lots of way to shutdown your system without touching the physical power button. You can create a batch file to shut it down. Or you can type it in Run dialog box by press Win+R.

shutdown /s /f /t 0

/s for shut it down

/f for forcefully close any application and shut it down immediately

/t for time in milliseconds, without delay

/r for reboot, replace with /s and it will reboot your computer

/hybrid for a fast startup just followed by /s

Write that code in notepad and then save the file with .bat on your desktop and you done. Just run the file as admin if it doesn't work.

Now another way is focus to the desktop and then just press the Alt+F4 and you will get the classic shutdown prompt window.

enter image description here

Another way is edit the registry entry and get the power button in your right click context menu. Just download the registry file and run the add-menu.reg file and it immediate add the menu to the right click menu.

enter image description here

avirk
  • 15,777
0

While possibly incredibly harmful, I have done:

taskend /f *

...Which gives a 0-second instant reboot. My primary machine had stood the test of time on this, but I wouldn't recommend it.

ClioCJS
  • 187
  • Did you mean taskkill? – bwDraco Oct 01 '15 at 23:24
  • In this case, I should have specified that this is an internal command to my command-line interpreter, TakeCommand. I didn't realize that -- I thought it was hitting a windows EXE for, apparently, some number of years.

    But it does provide the fastest reboot possible. I assume Taskkill.exe lets you do something similar, but I haven't tried it because I probably had taskend years before taskkill.exe existed. Problem was I forgot which layer my command was coming from....

     – ClioCJS Oct 03 '15 at 17:49
-2

As others have said, you can go via the Control Panel... route or, assuming you're using a machine with a keyboard, you can simply click on an empty area of the Desktop (ie not the Start page) and press Alt+F4 - then choose "Shut down".

Then leave the power button doing it's hibernate type thing so that Win8 boots nice and quick most of the time and you only properly shut down when you really need to.

Much easier.

shunty
  • 710
  • Uhh?? The question specifically states "Is there any way to shutdown the computer in a normal way?" - so yes, Alt-F4 is exactly that. The down vote police seem to be somewhat over zealous. – shunty Nov 09 '12 at 08:38