Windows Shutdown and Restart Shortcuts
~~Vic Ferri, WinTips and Tricks

Windows 95/98 only

Shutdown command
RUNDLL32.EXE user,exitwindows

Restart Command
C:\WINDOWS\RUNDLL.EXE user.exe,exitwindowsexec

Quick Restart Method
This will restart Windows (win.com) quickly without going through the entire boot process - great for refreshing the registry after changes to it in order to make them take effect.  The typical way to do the same without a shortcut is to click Start>Shutdown and  hold down the shift key after selecting Restart and clicking OK.

Note - before beginning this, make sure you are not hiding file extensions. Open any Folder and click View>Folder Options> in Windows 95 or Tools>Folder Options>View tab in Windows 98, and remove the checkmark from "Hide extensions of known file types" if there.  Once done, click Ok to save your changes and proceed as follows:

Right click your desktop and choose New>Text Document.
Type  this line only:

@EXIT

and save the document.
Now rename your text document with a BAT extension.  i.e.: Restart.BAT
Move the bat file to your C: drive and  then right click and drag it to your desktop to create a shortcut to it.
Right click the new shortcut and under properties,  click the Program tab and put a checkmark next to "Close on Exit".
Under the Advanced tab put a checkmark next to "MSDOS Mode" and  uncheck "Warn Before Entering MSDOS mode". Click OK twice to save your changes and close. You now have a desktop icon that when clicked will restart Windows without rebooting.

Windows 98/Me only

Shutdown
rundll32.exe shell32.dll,SHExitWindowsEx 1

Restart
rundll32.exe shell32.dll,SHExitWindowsEx 2

Log Off only
rundll32.exe shell32.dll,SHExitWindowsEx 0

Force a shutdown
rundll32.exe shell32.dll,SHExitWindowsEx 4

The above will shutdown any running processes and shutdown your computer without saving any data or warning. It should only be used if you have problems shutting down normally.

Note the numbers at the end of each of the above command lines.  They are what make the different actions possible and they can be combined.  The most common combination is using the Force shutdown action with a restart.  Restart = 2  Force =4, so you would just add 6 to the end of the main command line:
rundll32.exe shell32.dll,SHExitWindowsEx 6

If your computer supports the power-off feature, you can also use the number 8 which is a  Power Off action which will not only shutdown your computer, but turn off the power too.rundll32.exe shell32.dll,SHExitWindowsEx 8

To summarize:

0 = Logoff
1 = Shutdown
2 = Restart
4 = Forced Shutdown
8 = Power Off (Shutdown and turn off Power)

Another restart method is by using this command in a shortcut:
RUNONCE.EXE -q

What the above will do is bring up the familiar Windows setup dialog box with the progress bar indicating that Windows will restart in 15 seconds.

Windows 2000 and XP

Windows 2000 and XP come with their own shortcut utility, shutdown.exe but it isn't the greatest as it does not do a complete shutdown of XP and doesn't always work that great in 2000 either.  It doesn't usually shutdown your entire computer - it just shuts down Windows to the point of  "It's Now Safe To Turn Off Your Computer".

For both 2000 and XP, I recommend a better shutdown utility developed by a Microsoft MVP - Andrej Budja - which you can download from my Wintips&Tricks File section if you are a member (and if not, you are most welcome to join)  I named it shutdown2.exe so that the original shutdown.exe in 2000 and XP won't be overwritten.  After downloading, place it in your Windows\System32 folder.

Then, back at  your desktop, use the following command lines for your shortcuts.

Shutdown
shutdown2.exe -u -t 0

Restart
shutdown2.exe -r -t 0

Log Off
shutdown2.exe -I

Note the -t switch, this stands for TIME.  -t 0 means the shutdown or reboot action will begin immediately without delay after clicking your shortcut. If you wanted to hold off the shutdown and restart for a certain length of time, for whatever reason, then just indicate the number of seconds after the -t.   i.e.  -t 30  would wait 30 seconds before shutting down or restarting.

If you'd like to try the default shutdown utility  shipped with XP and 2k, click Start>Run and type
SHUTDOWN /?
This will show you all the options you can use with it.

You can also use this method to see all your options for shutdown2.exe.Just type
SHUTDOWN2 /?
instead.

You can also create hibernate or standby shortcuts.  For this, Windows own shortcut utility works fine.

For standby use:
shutdown.exe -s

For hibernate use:
shutdown.exe -h

You can use the - t switch with the above as well.  In fact , you can use the -t with any of the shutdown actions. i.e.: shutdown.exe  -s -t 45 would countdown 45 seconds before beginning standby.

You might also find it convenient to assign keyboard shortcuts to any of your shutdown shortcuts. A handy one might be for the straight shutdown shortcut.  Assign it to Ctrl-Alt -S,   for example.
To do this:
Right click the shutdown shortcut you created on your desktop and go to Properties.
There you will see the Shortcut key box. Just type S in the box and it will change to Ctr-Alt-S.
Click Ok to save your changes and you are done.

Another shutdown tool that ships with 2000 and XP is tsshutdn.exe that is mostly used for shutting down servers.  You can find out more about this here, if you are interested:
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;320188

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Vic Ferri owns the very popular WinTips and Tricks and Registry Answers. Subscribe to either and receive free Windows and Registry Tips. He is also in charge of the Printing Tips pages at Linda's Computer Stop. Vic has also created a program which allows you to Lock & Hide desktop folders in Windows 9X/ME. Read more and get the free demo here. And, he now offers a service to convert PowerPoint presentations to .exe files which can be viewed on computers which do not have PowerPoint installed.