When we want to shutdown our PC, we generally use our mouse. After all, it’s a pretty simple task and the option is easily available. However, if you are a keyboard warrior or looking for another easy way, you can use your keyboard shutdown Windows. This makes the entire process that much simpler and faster.
In this tutorial, I will share with you the three built-in keyboard shortcuts to shutdown Windows. If the default shortcuts are not to your liking, I will also show a method that helps you create your own shortcut to shutdown your Windows PC. Let’s get started.
Windows Shutdown Keyboard Shortcuts
Here are three built-in Windows shutdown shortcuts. Try them out and use the one you like to shutdown your PC.
1. Press Windows key + X, U, and then U Again
The Power User menu was first introduced in Windows 8 and you can launch it using a keyboard shortcut and power off the system from there. Here’s how.
Press Windows key + X to open the power user menu, then press U to expand the shutdown options, followed by U to shutdown.
Note: You should press the U and U keys sequentially, not simultaneously.
2. Press Alt + F4 to Shutdown
Press the Alt + F4 to open the Shut Down window and immediately press Enter. This action will shutdown your PC.
3. Ctrl + Alt + Del to Shutdown
If your PC is unresponsive, you can shutdown your PC from the Windows Security Screen. Here’s how.
1. First, press Ctrl + Alt + Del to open the Windows Security Screen.
2. Here, press the tab key to select the Power icon in the bottom right corner and press Enter.
3. Use your arrow keys to select the Shut Down option and then press Enter.
The above action immediately closes all the applications and shuts down your PC.
Create a Custom Keyboard Shortcut To Shutdown Windows
If the default shortcuts are too cumbersome or awkward to use, you can create your own keyboard shortcut to shutdown Windows. To do this, we are going to create a batch script and PowerToys, a free and open-source program built by Microsoft.
Related: How to create a shutdown desktop shortcut
1. First, open the Start menu, search for Notepad, and click on the top result to open Notepad.
2. In the notepad window, type shutdown /s /t 0. Click File > Save As.
3. Go to a folder where you want to save the file, type ShutdownPC.bat as the ‘File Name’, select All Files from the ‘File Type’ dropdown menu, and click Save.
Note: You must add .bat at the end of the file name.
4. Close the Notepad window.
5. Next, download PowerToys from GitHub, double-click on the downloaded exe file, and follow the installation wizard to install PowerToys.
6. After installing, open the Start menu, search for PowerToys, and click the top result to open the PowerToys program.
7. In the PowerToys window, select Keyboard Manager on the sidebar.
8. Turn on the Enable Keyboard Manager option.
9. Click the Remap a Shortcut option.
10. Click the Add Shortcut Remapping button.
11. Next, click the Edit icon next to ‘Shortcut’ under the Select column.
12. Press the shortcut you want to assign and click OK. For instance, I assigned Ctrl + Del by pressing those keys.
13. Select Run Program from the ‘Action’ dropdown menu.
14. Click the Select Program button.
15. Go to the folder where you saved the batch file, select it, and click the Open button.
16. Leave all other options to their default values and click OK at the top of the window.
17. Close the PowerToys window.
That’s it. You’ve created your own shortcut to shutdown Windows. From now on, press this shortcut and Windows will shutdown immediately.
Note: For this shortcut to work, the PowerToys application should be running in the background. You can verify it by looking at the PowerToys icon on the taskbar’s system tray.
Wrapping – Using Keyboard to Shutdown Windows
These are three built-in and one custom shortcut to shutdown your PC. Whether you are using your own shortcut or the built-in ones, keyboard shortcuts make it easy to shut down your PC.
If you have any questions, comment below and I will answer. Also, did you know that you can also restart your PC with keyboard? Check out the linked article to learn how.
