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ITsVISTA Tip 48: Restart or Shutdown Vista from the Keyboard

March 24th, 2007 · 19 Comments · 23,183 views
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TipsOne of the keyboard routines I adopted in XP was for shutting down or restarting. I’d simply press the Start Key then “U” would open the Shutdown command, and “R” would select Restart (or I could use the arrows to move to shutdown if needed), then “Enter” would enact it. I was so disappointed when I found I could no longer do that in Vista! Well, I got nice surprise today when Angie posted a tip on how to use the old Shutdown command. After playing with it I found it didn’t always work perfect, but I found a tweak to make it do what I wanted. Here’s how to do it:

  1. When you’re ready to restart or shutdown, if you have any windows open press Start Key + D which will take you to your desktop. If you don’t have any other windows open, you can skip this step.
  2. Press the ALT key and while holding it down, press F4, this will close the active item, or exit the active program, which is why we had to get to the desktop first, otherwise it would just close whatever window you were in. You could also just keep pressing ALT+F4 until all your windows are closed, but if you work like me, that could be a lot of times.
    Shut Down Windows
  3. With the Shut Down Windows window open, type R if you want to restart, S if you want to switch users or shutdown (each time you type it it toggles between the two), or L to logoff. I’m going to restart, so of course I type R (not cap sensitive).
    R for Restart
  4. Finally, press Enter to activate the OK button, which will restart, shutdown, switch user, or logoff.

So, Start Key+D then ALT+F4 then R then Enter will restart your Vista machine, a few more keys than in XP, but at least it’s still an option…

ITsVISTA

ITsVISTA Tip 48: Restart or Shutdown Vista from the Keyboard

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Comments

  • Bill

    Mar 29, 2007 at 5:04 pm

    I think this can also be done by cntl-alt-del followed by pressing tab 3 times, followed by enter for shutdown.

  • Joe

    Mar 29, 2007 at 5:14 pm

    Just tried it, right you are. It’s actually more keys and more key combinations than the method presented above, but some may find it easier to remember your suggestion. Good to have options, thanks!

  • Scott Dunn

    Apr 19, 2007 at 12:45 pm

    I think an even faster method that requires no key combinations (just single keys) is one documented by Brian Livingston & Paul Thurrott in Windows Secrets:

    Shutdown:
    Win key, right arrow 3 times, U

    Restart:
    Win key, right arrow 3 times, R

    Sleep:
    Win key, right arrow 3 times, S

    Etc

    Of course this only works with the new Start menu. If you use the “Classic Start menu” (in Taskbar and Start menu Properties), then you can use the same keyboard method as you describe for XP.

  • Joe

    Apr 19, 2007 at 4:01 pm

    I can confirm that works, I’m just getting back up and running (I always forget their’s no confirmation in Vista like their was in XP when shutting down). I think I like that best so far, Win + RIGHTx3 + U. Thanks!

  • Barry R

    Apr 21, 2007 at 1:27 pm

    I find a much quicker way to shutdown is to use the “shutdown” command.

    Start +R (to bring up the “Run” prompt)

    “shutdown /s” is a shutdown and power off
    “shutdown /h” is a hibernate
    “shutdown /r” is a restart

    You can also use “shutdown /a” to terminate a time-delayed shutdown.

    If you really want to save time, as I do, just create a batch file called “off.bat” with the “shutdown /s” command inside, and save it in the system32 directory. Then you can just go
    Start + R
    off [return]
    Takes me less than a second. :)

  • Remo

    May 21, 2007 at 8:54 am

    hello.
    i just entred shutdown -h on my macbook pro running vista. now my macbook won’t start again. black screen – led flash’s – cd rom check and nothing else. any ideas?
    remo

  • Barry R

    May 21, 2007 at 10:52 am

    I honestly don’t know. I neither own, nor have used, a macbook so am not familiar with its foibles.

    Just in general though, does Vista on MacBooks support hibernation? I seem to recall a few comments back when Vista was at RTM stage where people had similar issues with hibernation.

    Barry

  • Joe

    May 21, 2007 at 11:16 am

    Wow, that’s peculiar. I would pull the power and the battery so you know for sure it’s not in some kind of sleep or hibernation mode and see if that works.

  • Remo

    May 21, 2007 at 12:15 pm

    Hi. I pulled the power and the battery a night.. took my ram out and tried to boot – same problem. normally i hibernate with the start menu but had never any issues… so a friend told me now my mainboard is killed – means it burned a transistor or something.. tomorrow i’ll bring it to the apple center.. 2 months ago i replaced my board… thanks a lot 4 your tips..
    i’ll let you know what was happening with my MacBook:)
    RESUME:
    NEVER TYPE shutdown -h in prompt in vista running on a MacBook Pro ;)
    remo

  • Remo

    May 21, 2007 at 12:18 pm

    P.S.
    I’m running the Final version of Vista

  • Remo

    May 23, 2007 at 1:48 pm

    Hey guys
    I’ve found the solution.
    It had nothing to do with the command. It was a little piece of metal that left inside my book since the last checkup. ->caused a short circuit. Thx a lot
    cya

  • adam

    Jun 9, 2007 at 8:07 am

    WIN > LEFT > RIGHT > U
    1 less step

  • David

    Jul 21, 2007 at 11:31 pm

    Shut down with three keystrokes:

    windows key
    u
    enter (so long as you have Shut Down set as the default for start menu power button – do this in power options in control panel)

    BTW the ‘Shut Down Windows’ window says “What do you want the computer to do?” and for Shut Down it says “Closes all open programs, shuts down Windows. and then turns off your computer”.

    Is Vista clever enough to close open programs automatically after saving data or should open programs be shut down manually before shutting the system down?

    David

  • Martin

    Aug 22, 2007 at 7:50 am

    Sorry, but I don’t get it. ALT+F4 can be used to quit applications AND bring up the shut down screen. I guess if I had Vista I could try this, but I don’t get it.

  • Bob

    Oct 20, 2007 at 12:49 pm

    Don’t know much about code and for someone who needs it simple I use Wizmo.exe. I have Reboot, Logoff, Shutdown and Open, close Cd on my Desktop

    http://www.grc.com/wizmo/wizmo.htm

    It works with Vista or XP

    I was using this site to look up the cmds that can be used with Vista

  • Ronnie

    Nov 18, 2007 at 2:05 am

    I’m sure there’s a way to do all these things with a mouse and just one hand.
    :-)

  • Terry

    Dec 6, 2007 at 7:31 am

    You could buy a WK-9000 keyboard (£7 from ebuyer) with 52 hot keys.
    Then just “Power Off” when you want to.
    Or save the £7 and just do the same with your PC power button. (Set it to do a controlled shutdown in Control panel/Power Options first)

  • Reddoxster

    Dec 14, 2007 at 10:58 pm

    The Ctrl+Alt+Del way’s definitely the best (even though the old NT interface of the Alt-F4 command makes me all nostalgic, etc).

  • Michael

    Aug 15, 2009 at 10:49 am

    Ronnie,
    Yes, of course the mouse works. The point is that many of us do most of our work from the keyboard and would prefer not to “mouse around” if not absolutely necessary. It is amazing how much more productive you can be with a computer when you’re not constantly switching back and forth from keyboard to mouse. It’s equally amazing that the designers of Vista’s interface gave such little attention to this.

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