How to shutdown Windows Server “8”

Posted on by Rick

Win-I

Call me crazy.  Sometimes I want to shutdown my servers.

After loading up the Windows Server “8” beta on some of my test systems, I was a little perplexed as to how I should be shutting them down – either logged on locally or remotely.

Humm…. From a command line – I can always run my trusty command:

SHUTDOWN /S /T 3

That gives me a 3 second window before things get shut down. But without my traditional start menu – how should I do it via the GUI?

Windows_Key + i

That seems to be the fastest way to pull up your settings – including the power button for shutting / restarting your server.

You could also do a three-finger-salute with CTRL-ALT-DEL and choosing it from the bottom right corner.

I’ll stick with either my command line (if I am working in one or the awesome new PowerShell) or I’ll use the slightly easier Windows_Key + i

Thought you might like to know.

9 thoughts on “How to shutdown Windows Server “8””

  1. Lol we seem to all face the same head scratching…even on the client version…but let’s be honest when you get used to the tricks (specially if you don’t have touch) it’s pretty good!

  2. Thank you. I was so defeated by this seemingly simple task. I’m not a server guy … just trying to get ASP.NET 4.5 Web Deployment Packages to magically work in IIS8. Arrgghhh!

  3. Great post. I keep mousing to the lower left corner to shut down/sleep the PC and your Windows + I shortcut is great. The CTRL-ALT-DELETE is very functional as well. Glad to have keyboard options now to do this process.

    Loving me some Windows 8!

    1. I love the Windows +I for the shutdown… I also really like the Windows + X for the quick menu – including admin command prompt.

      1. I just installed latest release and if you hit Alt + F4 form the desktop you get the normal shutdown window

  4. Thanks Guys!

    I really feel stupid there for a while when I googled “How to shutdown Windows Server 2012” 🙂
    You gave me some really good tips.

  5. hahaha, love it.

    I deployed a win8 test box at work and one of my fun things to do was time an experienced sys admin initiating a shutdown of the box. Best result was 2 mins 38 seconds. worst result was give up after 10 minutes.

    Personally do not understand the rationale of hiding the power interface in the right side break out window buried under settings, when other more destructive options are made more accessable (Format disk from the ribbon interface when selecting a drive in explorer)

  6. Hi,

    you can also use the powershell command Stop-Computer for shutdown and Restart-Computer for restarting.

    Regards

Comments are closed.