Yes there is. As has always been the case, there are several ways to accomplish any task. Let me review the “normal” procedure when using a mouse:

Run the pointer into the upper-right or lower-right corner. The “charms” will show up.

• Move the pointer to the Settings charm and click on it.
• In the Settings panel click on Power.
• Finally click on Shut down.

With just keyboard strokes the procedure is this:

• Hold down the Windows logo key and press I (the letter i) – this brings up the Settings panel.
• Press the up arrow key. This selects Power (shown here).
• Press the Enter key to bring up the Power options.
• Press U – note the “u” in Shut down is underlined.

In notation form the steps are:

• logo+I – up arrow – Enter – u       +  –    –    – 

Now for a quicker way: using a shutdown desktop shortcut. This tip comes from Ed Bott at ZDNet (The Metro hater’s guide to customizing Windows 8 Consumer Preview).

Make a Windows 8 Consumer Preview desktop shutdown shortcut.

• Press the logo key to bring up the Start screen. Click on the Desktop tile to go to the desktop.
• Right-click in an empty area.
• In the menu move the pointer down to New and then to the right to to open a submenu.
• Click on Shortcut.
• In the Create shortcut dialog type this text: shutdown /p   Note that there is a space after the word “shutdown”.
• Click Next.

The next dialog allows you to give the shortcut a name. You can accept the presented “shutdown.exe” – I prefer to shorten it to just “shutdown”.

• Click Finish.

You now have a shutdown shortcut. The icon may not be exactly what you would associate with “shutdown”.

• So right-click the icon and select Properties.
• Click Change icon… on the Shortcut tab (it opened by default).
• Click OK on the warning dialog to let you choose an icon from the built-in collection.

The new dialog presents a large number of icons. Choose the one you like. You can see in the illustration that I chose the red power icon.

• Click on the chosen icon.
• Click OK and again click OK to close both dialog windows.

You now have a good looking shutdown shortcut on your desktop. Position it as you prefer.

Now you can quickly shut down the computer from the Windows 8 Consumer Preview desktop. Just double-click the shutdown shortcut and the computer shuts down.

A little bit of background information

The Windows 8 Consumer Preview retains the “Command prompt” program. You can find it on the All apps screen (right-click an empty spot on the Start screen).

This program, us old-timers lovingly call it the “DOS box”, allows you to invoke a large number of computer commands. Just open the app and type help and press Enter. You will se a large number of available commands. One of the commands is “shutdown”. If you type “shutdown” – don’t worry, it won’t execute, it requires a “parameter” – it will show the available parameters or instructions to obtain desired functions. One ot the parameters is “/p” which tells the shutdown program to initiate a “planned” shutdown sequence.

The create shortcut program permit a line of basic computer commands for the shortcut to execute.

.:.

© 2011 Ludwig Keck