Is there a way to shut down Windows XP from your keyboard?

I am suffering a lot of freezes where one program goes "unresponsive" and it spreads to other programs even though CPU and RAM usage are normal. When I try to use the start button to shut down Windows, I can't. Task Manager tends to go unresponsive on me too.

You can do all kinds of things on Windows from the keyboard. Why not shut down?

 

http://www.wikihow.com/Shut-Down-Your-PC-with-a-Shortcut-Key

 

Dup post

 

You can also see if this helps:

Control panel > power options.

 

Can you tell us what this program is.confused

Or is it just a random freeze up with any program.

I would recommend on running a check disk on hard drive to see if there are any errors.

 

conceptualclarity...

If you tried PSC2007's link suggestion, this is what you need to add to the first box when creating the shortcut:

%windir%\System32\shutdown.exe -s -f -t 10

Then name it Shutdown. Then right click, select properties, and add the keyboard key you wish to use for the shortcut in the "Shortcut" tab in the appropriate box

 

Thank you, PSCO2007. That is a great article, and I am definitely bookmarking it.

Unfortunately when I tried to carry it out by entering "shutdown-s -t", XP came back with "The file shutdown-s cannot be found."

I hope there is some way around this roadblock.

 

There needs to be a space before -s. That tip is very useful for Win 8 users as shutting down any other way is a right pita. You can substitute -r for -s and the system will reboot. -t is time delay so tweak that to suit your needs.

 

Have you tried pressing the Alt + F4 keys, while the desk top is active?

 

Hi guys, thanks for all the help. My last post was on an unrefreshed tab. I have followed the instructions from the web page and AtlBo but have run into another speed bump. I've gotten to the Shortcut tab step and in the Shortcut Key slot it says "None." XP will not let me get rid of that "None." It's frozen in space; backspacing and blue-highlighting will not work. There must be something else I need to do.

It often but not always starts with a browser and spreads. Lately I'm mostly using Maxthon Cloud Browser, which is very lightweight. If a link insists on bringing up that old clunker IE8 rather than my default browser, I have to rush to kill it as quickly as I can, or IE8 will spread the unresponsiveness fever. The unresponsiveness starts with something stressful, opening a new link or a new application typically.

Thanks. I prefer that.

Windows XP
Home Edition
Version 2002
32-bit
Service Pack 3

Dell DIMENSION DIM2400
Intel(R)
Pentium(R) 4 CPU 2.66GHz
2.66 Ghz. 2.00 GB of RAM
Hard Drive Size 111.72 GB
Free Space 30.0 GB

 

Concerning that first Power Option Pic, I am given the options in XP of
Home/Office Desk
Presentation
Always On
Minimal Power Management
Max battery

Concerning the second picture, I looked in Power Options and System and couldn't find any XP seiings analogous to that.

 

I have never even heard of Maxthon Cloud Browser must be new.

This might sound to me more like a virus or malware problem have you done any kinda virus scan or malware lately.

 

[QUOTEI have never even heard of Maxthon Cloud Browser must be new.][/QUOTE]

Maxthon isn't new but Maxthon Cloud Browser is.

I've recently run anti-spyware scans including Malwarebytes. I have a hard time getting through a whole avast! boot scan because it finds so many false positives to pause at. I will work through them, and I'll run Comodo Cleaning Essentials soon

 

Try to run every thing in Safe mode with networking.

So that you can up date all the AV.

 

I don't know what you mean by "while the desk top is active?" I just had my system go int the unresponsiveness cascade again, and I tried the Alt + F4 keys and they didn't work,

So I still need some solution for shutting down from the keyboard.

The info I got from PSCO2007, AtlBO, and Earthling was very appealing. Is there any way around the roadblock I ran into with it?

 

I thought we had pointed out a syntax error and that had cleared it :confused

 

conceptualclarity...

I actually created one of these on the XP Pro PC I have here, and it worked.

What I did was
1. Create the shortcut on the desktop
2. When the "Create Shortcut" menu popped up I added:

%windir%\System32\shutdown.exe -r -f -t 10

3. Click Next
4. I left the name of the shortcut as shutdown and clicked Finish
5. Right click on the shortcut and select Properties
6. Click on the box next to "Shortcut Key" and type in a 0 (that's zero I used). The box automatically amended it to CTRL + ALT + 0
7. Click Apply and close menu
8. Holding down the CTRL, ALT, and 0 simultaneously gave me a restart after a 10 second delay

This is for restart as Earthling mentioned I think:

%windir%\System32\shutdown.exe -r -f -t 10

This is for shutdown:

%windir%\System32\shutdown.exe -s -f -t 10

Hope this helps...

 

"While the desk top is active" = While you're at the desk top, not in an application(your web browser for instance). The [Alt] + [F4] key combination used from within an application is generally the same as clicking on the red X or selecting "Exit" from the "File" menu of that application.

Pressing the [Alt] + [F4] key combination while you're at the desk top will bring up the Windows shut down pop-up selections, Stand-by, Hibernate(if enabled), Shut down, Reboot, and the final option of Cancel. Any of the options can be highlighted by using the "Tab" key and selected by pressing the "Enter" key.

If you have one or more applications running, you can press the [Windows] + [D] key combination to bring the desk top to the forefront(on top) of all open windows(applications) making the desk top active. Pressing the [Windows] + [Shift] + [M] key combination will return all the open window applications on top of the desk top.

If the computer is in a "frozen" state, not excepting input in your case, then neither the shortcut nor the keyboard combinations will work. The freezing problem needs to be resolved first.

 

I just tried that, and when I got to the Shortcut Key box, I again found the "None" to be immovable keeping me from typing in it.

I'm on XP Home rather than XP Pro. Could that make a difference?

That didn't work for me.

Should I try some XP forum?

Windows XP
Home Edition
Version 2002
32-bit
Service Pack 3

Dell DIMENSION DIM2400
Intel(R)
Pentium(R) 4 CPU 2.66GHz
2.66 Ghz. 2.00 GB of RAM
Hard Drive Size 111.72 GB
Free Space 34.8 GB

 

conceptualclarity...

Check to see if your hotkeys are disabled:

Start Button->Control Panel->Administrative Tools->Services and scroll down until you find the service name HID Input Service. See if it is on and set to start automatically on startup. If it is says disabled, double click on the line of the service and change the startup type to automatic...

Found a reference to this program:

"Windows Hotkey Explorer"

which lists the hotkeys registered in Windows, and (theoretically) which application registered the hotkey if you think you'd like to take a look at which programs are registered for which hotkeys. I haven't used this or even looked at it or for it, so I don't know what to expect. There are also hotkeys programs out there that you can use to set hotkeys to perform functions...

 

I find that it is Automatic and Stopped. (I checked WinPatrol as well as services in Windows.)I tried to start it to see what would happen. I got a message that says it could not start. It says "Error 2 : The system cannot find the file specified."

 

conceptualclarity...

Looks like this might be pertaining to your exact problem. I didn't read it fully, but it appears to be about your problem:

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/932875

Looks like you might end up on Method 3 to fix this. It's a registry change. Just post if you get stuck...

 

Sometimes I have to left click on a Desktop empty spot and then press Alt+F4.

The quick and sure way that doesn't even require having the monitor On (just remember the sequence) is
Win key > "U" > Enter > "U"

The first "U" may have to be hit two or three times if there are other "U" shortcuts in the Start menu.

 

It is on Automatic and Stopped (checking WinPatrol as well as Services on Windows). I tried to start it from Services to see what would happen. I got the message that it could not be started on Local Computer and "Error 2 : The system cannot find the file specified."

 

Thanks for that. I will keep that on a piece of paper. I hope it will work for me.

Thanks for this. I forgot about it for a while. Last night my computer was run down but not frozen. I tried in vain for 20 minutes to restart it from Task Manager. Finally I gave up and hit the power button, which usually makes for a difficult restart. (I'm thinking now the best thing is to go to Safe Mode as briefly as I can after a power-button shutdown.)

On backing up the registry, http://support.microsoft.com/kb/322756#method2, do you suggest Guided Help download, or manual, or something else?

Also, I just checked Major Geeks Updater and it says my keyboard driver is out of date. I'm very ignorant about drivers. I've never updated them before, and I'm wary of making a mess. MG seems to be very big on driver updating. Others say leave 'em alone. But I think it looks like the keyboard is really due, given that it failed the other night.

 

I tried these things last night when my system got stalled with 99% Memory Usage. It didn't work. I have never once gotten Alt+F4 to do anything for me.