Home Page Back Written: 09-Oct-2000 Revised: 27-Oct-2000 |
PDB Helpdesk: More on Shutdown By Thiravudh Khoman In the past few months, there have a been a smattering of letters re: the RUNDLL method of shutting down a Windows computer, as elucidated by Wanda Sloan. While this is also my preferred method of shutting down Windows, in practice, the technique is hardly infallible. There are at least 3 instances I know of where it can fail:
If the RUNDLL method doesn't work for you, don't curse the darkness - simply avail yourself of other some other shutdown utility of which there are many. These can be found at any file repositiory on the web (WinFiles.Com for example). Before I started using RUNDLL, I relied on something called Shutdown Utility v3.0, a freeware program by Kjetil Nygard - and still use it when I run into RUNDLL problems. You can get it from: https://www.zdnet.com/downloads/stories/info/0,,000DHW,.html. Although RUNDLL shuts down faster, Shutdown v3.0 has a LOT more features. Both are free, so choose as you will. Postscript: If you want a really quick way to shutdown, assign a short-cut key to either RUNDLL or Shutdown.Exe. After creating a shutdown shortcut on the desktop, right click the shortcut icon, select "Properties", place the mouse cursor in the "Shortcut key" field, and then press some key, for example the letter "S". Doing so will make Ctrl-Alt-S run the shutdown shortcut. Granted Ctrl-Alt-S (apparently, it must be some combination of Ctrl-Alt-) isn't exactly the most convenient keystroke combination you can press, but it beats having to use a mouse. For example, I can shutdown a computer, standing up 2 feet away from it (e.g. when someone forgets to turn off their computer or when I'm "on the run"). The alternative would be bend over or sit down, grab the mouse, position it at the shortcut icon and double click. Needless to say, you have the choice of doing EITHER. |