Copyright © 1997-2008 Elizabeth Boston, The Computer Lady

Dear Computer Lady,

 

I've been into your newsletter quite a while now and love it.  I've

gotten dozens of hints over the last year or so. Now I have a question.

 

This past November I bought a new pc with more memory. It came with

Windows XP home. I had Win. 98 before.

 

Here's my question: In Win.98 I was able to set up icons to 'shutdown' &

'restart'. But I'm not able to set them up in Win. XP.

Can you help me?

I appreciate it,

your fan, Bob

 

 

Dear Bob,

 

It is actually easy to create shutdown and restart shortcuts on your

desktop in XP, but you must pay attention to the details or it will not work.

First, right-click on the Desktop and select "New" and "Shortcut" from

the pop-up menu.

 

Click the "Browse" button and find the file

C:\Windows\System32\Shutdown.exe

 

To get to the file, click the plus sign next to "My Computer", then the

C: drive, the "Windows" folder, the "System32" folder and finally click

on the file shutdown.exe and click "OK"

 

Click Next, and type a name the shortcut. Click Finish.

 

Next, right-click on the new shortcut and choose "Properties".

 

Click on the "Shortcut" tab and in the Target box, add the following

after shutdown.exe:

 

-l (to log off)

-s (to shut down)

-r (to reboot)

 

Click "OK" and you will be ready to try your shortcut out.

 

Elizabeth