Windows Tips: What's on the Menu? You Decide

Force Windows to Exit or Reboot

In January's Windows Tips, I showed how to create shortcuts that automate the process of shutting down Windows or rebooting your computer. But a problem arises if your PC is on a network: Shutting down Windows in that situation can trigger a message box reminding you that you are connected to another computer. Windows then asks for permission to proceed. If you're using Task Scheduler to automate a shutdown or reboot, you may not be at your PC to respond, so Windows will simply sit there with the prompt displayed for all eternity--or at least until someone responds by clicking Yes or No. So much for automation.

Fortunately, as Richard Schauer of Everett, Washington, points out, you can force Windows to shut down or reboot and have it ignore all open applications, documents, and message prompts. First, if you haven't already done so, create your shutdown or reboot shortcut: Right-click the desktop or in the desired folder and choose New, Shortcut. Type the appropriate command line, but add 4 to the numeric parameter at the end.

For example, the command line normally used for shutting down Windows is 'rundll32.exe shell32.dll,SHExitWindowsEx 1'. Add 4 to the final parameter, and now the 'force shutdown' line becomes 'rundll32.exe shell32.dll,SHExitWindowsEx 5'. To force a reboot, change the '5' to a 6 (equivalent to adding 4 to the normal reboot option of 2). To complete the shortcut, click Next, type a name, and click Finish.

Characters in this command line are case-sensitive, so watch your capitalization. Also, take care not to add a space after the comma. A typo in the January issue included a space, to the consternation of many readers. Deleting the space should solve that problem.

The downside: If you use this command, Windows will ignore all network connection prompts and also any prompts to save open documents. If any open documents have unsaved changes when you force a shutdown, those changes will be lost for good. So use this technique only when you're certain you won't lose data.