I have Windows 8, and like almost all of it.

One of the things that had been a pain in the rear was the shutdown or restart process steps - just too many.

Soooo, I did some looking out on the web, and someone posted a wonderful streamlining of those 2 processes, through the use of simple shortcuts.

1.  Go to your desktop and right-click - then click on New>Shortcut
2.  It will ask for location - paste or type in: C:\Windows\System32\shutdown.exe /r /t 00
         (In the above, the /r parameter tells it to restart)

3.  Click Next
4.  Now name it: Restart
5.  Click Finish
6.  If you also want to attach this shortcut to your Start Menu, right-click on the shortcut, and click on 'Pin to Start'.


The above creates a shortcut to tell Windows 8 to Restart.  If you run it from your desktop, you have to double-click, from the Start Menu it is a single click.


Here are very similar steps to create a shortcut for actual shutdown.


1.  Go to your desktop and right-click - then click on New>Shortcut
2.  It will ask for location - paste or type in: C:\Windows\System32\shutdown.exe /s /t 00
         (In the above, the /s parameter tells it to shutdown)

3.  Click Next
4.  Now name it: Shutdown
5.  Click Finish
6.  If you also want to attach this shortcut to your Start Menu, right-click on the shortcut, and click on 'Pin to Start'.


I use these all the time, and it saves a few steps.

Bob Bone

Or if you're not a big mouse person: alt+f4 then Enter to shut down or alt+f4 then down arrow and Enter to restart.

One more Windows 8 tip, for those who use 2 or more display monitors.

I currently have 2 monitors, and due to the layout of the room I am setup in, the larger screen (my primary display monitor) sits to the RIGHT side of my secondary monitor, so that when I want to get the mouse to go to the second monitor, I have to pull the mouse off the RIGHT side of my primary screen, and then it will appear on the secondary monitor - which again is on the LEFT side.

It's goofy, backwards.

So, I did some digging, and if anyone else out there has this same issue, here is how to make it so that if you move the mouse off the left edge of your primary monitor, it will appear on the monitor that is on the left side.

1.  Right-click on a blank area of your desktop
2.  Click on New>Screen Resolution
3.  In the Screen Resolution dialog box, click on the screen labelled 1 (in a circle) up at the top of the screen, and drag it over to the right of the second display (labelled as 2 in a circle).  
4.  Click Apply

That's it.  Windows will switch it so that now the mouse will extend to the LEFT from your primary display onto a secondary monitor that sits on the left side of your main monitor.

Hope that made sense, and I hope it helps anyone who had that annoying issue.

Bob Bone

Bob - you can drag/drop the monitor configuration around to place the primary/secondary monitor in the right position (from the screen setup/personlisation screen).  That way you won't have to move the mouse the wrong way to get to the other screen.
 
<<EDIT>> Duh - never mind - you posted exactly this in your fix!

I have a Samsung laptop it comes with a quick start ap that mimics the old look of windows from the desktop so I can click to restart

Good tips...
Win8 is pretty cool with a touch-screen monitor:

• Swipe from the edge
• Touch "Settings"
• Touch "Power" (and you can choose restart or shutdown)

Pretty fast once you get used to it.



One other thing to mention about Win8 in a multi-monitor environment:
If you're using a touch monitor, it has to be the primary monitor (for touch purposes).
If you make the touch monitor the secondary unit, it'll control the items displayed on the primary monitor (not what you want).  

love windows 8, best os off the bat ive ever used, the start button is now the start page,big deal.
faster than 7 that's all that matters here.

I just helped my son build a new W8 pc from the ground up - haven't done a hardware build for years so it was quite exciting.  Apart from  moment when it appeared the mobo had no power supply to it (the cables with the psu can be split to form a 2x2 block we discovered!) it all went pretty smooth.  Also W8 seems to have an issue recognising a CV/DVD player installed on the SATA port #2 (seen it twice now).

OEM install of W8 was quick - and it boots from power off to ready-to-type in less than 10 seconds.  That's way better than my custom built one with an i7! So now I need to go back and look at what's running on mine.  Pity his new pc is really only being used for Battlefield 3 and Minecraft...

Wood67


I just helped my son build a new W8 pc from the ground up - haven't done a hardware build for years so it was quite exciting.  Apart from  moment when it appeared the mobo had no power supply to it (the cables with the psu can be split to form a 2x2 block we discovered!) it all went pretty smooth.  Also W8 seems to have an issue recognising a CV/DVD player installed on the SATA port #2 (seen it twice now).

OEM install of W8 was quick - and it boots from power off to ready-to-type in less than 10 seconds.  That's way better than my custom built one with an i7! So now I need to go back and look at what's running on mine.  Pity his new pc is really only being used for Battlefield 3 and Minecraft...

windows 8 doesn't come with cd/dvd player anymore, which is a stink man.
that may be why you were having problems with that.
they pulled it out because this OS was designed with portable hand held in mind, they got rid of it to save room.
can you believe that ?
 
congrats on the new build, I do between 4 to 7 builds a month, more customers of mine are bringing in their windows 7 serials for transfers.
I keep telling them windows 8 is better, but that start button thing really sent a bad taste in many peoples mouth.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LFZ7ZrsTl3g
I have a book and about 10 videos (that go with book for every step) out there on building your own "A beginners guide to computer building"
ive given many copy's away here on this forum alone. a lot of copy's I actually.
 
anyone interested in building their own daw for under 500.00 ?
let me know, i'll send you a download link.