10 March 2009

Windows - Startup & Shutdown

DIFFERENT WAYS TO SHUTDOWN
1. The standard approach - click the Start Button with your mouse, then select the Turn Off menu and finally click the Turn Off icon on the Turn Off computer dialog. blink.gif

2. Press Ctrl+Esc key or the Win key and press u two times - the fastest approach.

3. Get the Shutdown utility from Download.com - it add the shut down shortcuts for you. Else create them yourself using approach.

4. Create a shutdown shortcut on your desktop. Right click on the desktop, choose New Shortcut and type shutdown -s -t 00 in the area where you are asked to specify the location of the program file. Now you can just double click this icon to turn off the computer. The best location would be your quick launch bar.

5. Press the Win key + R key to open the run window. Type shutdown -s -t 00. [s means shutdown while t means the duration after which you want to initiate the shutdown process].
If some open processes or application won't let you turn off, append a -f switch to force a shut down by closing all active processes.

6. Win+M to minimize all windows and then Alt+F4 to bring the Turn Off computer dialog.

7. Open Windows Task manager (by right clicking the Windows Task bar or Alt+Ctrl+Del) and choose Shut down from the menu. Useful when the Windows are not responding.

8. open task manager--->click on shutdown--->hold the ctrl key and click on Turn off::::::: pc will be turned off in 3 secs.. fastest method other than hard shutdown

RESTART WINDOWS WITHOUT RESTARTING UR PC

When you click on the SHUTDOWN button,make sure to simultaneous press SHIFT Button. If you hold the Shift key down while clicking on SHUTDOWN button, you computer would restart without restarting the Computer. This is equivalent to term "HOT REBOOT".

RESTRICT PC SHUTDOWN

Both Vista and Windows XP let you take control of preventing a user not to shutdown the machine by editing the group policy. For example if your friend is using your computer and you went somewhere ( and you have still some unsaved document left) and he shutdowns the pc without saving them…you loose a good amount of data. ( Trust me I have lost one whole blog post and project code at same time ). This is what you can do

Restrict PC Shutdown

* Type gpedit.msc in run dialog box [ WIN KEY + R ]
* This will open Group Policy Editor. Now there are two things in it, Computer Configuration and User Configuration
* Click on User Configuration > Administrative Templates > Start Menu and Task Bar
* Now look for “remove and prevent access to shutdown command”
* Double Click and Enable it.
* Exit the group policy editor.

This setting removes the Shut Down option from the Start menu and disables the Shut Down button on the Windows Security dialog box, which appears when you press CTRL+ALT+DEL. This setting prevents users from using the Windows user interface to shut down the system.

Now if you try to shutdown by clicking on start , the shutdown button must have disappeared. Moreover check the task manager and you will find all shutdown,restart and others disabled except switch user.

CHANGE STARTUP & SHUTDOWN SOUNDS IN XP

Have you ever felt bugged-up with the Start-up and Shutdown jingle of your Windows XP or Vista ? If yes, here is the solution, now you use any of your favorite voice or music or dialogue as your PC’s shutdown and start up.

It’s a simple 4 step process.

Step 1.

Choose the track which you want to play at start-up and shutdown jingles,
Limitations are
* It should be in .WAV format.
* The size of file should not be large, prefer keeping them within in 1 Mb, otherwise your startup will take a bit longer.
If the file you want to make your start-up or shutdown is not in .WAV format, you can easily convert them using Jet Audio 7, or any other converter.

Step 2.

Now rename these files as “Windows XP Startup.WAV” and “Windows XP Shutdown.WAV” respectively.

Step 3.

Now Go to “C:\WINDOWS\MEDIA”, here you will find files “Windows XP Startup.WAV” and “Windows XP Shutdown.WAV”, move them to some other locations, this step is required for, in case you need to revert back these sounds, else you can ignore this step.

Step 4.

Now the files you have chosen and renamed, just copy-paste or cut paste them in “C:\WINDOWS\MEDIA”, here you go, now you can enjoy the new Start-up and shutdown.