There are still many people using Windows XP, even in this day and age: March 2011 at time of writing.

Wouldn’t it be convenient if you could shut down a computer running Windows XP by clicking an icon on the desktop?

– The good news is that you can do just that; after a tiny bit of software engineering: -

We’re going to create a desktop icon in Windows XP which will shut down the computer. – You’ll be able to shut down your computer with a single or double-click of the mouse; depending upon how you have your computer set up.

The procedure isn’t exactly rocket science:

* Right-click an empty area of the Windows XP desktop and hover your cursor over “New”.

* In the list that appears, select “Shortcut” by clicking on it.

* In the text-input line below where it says “Type the location of the item:” enter

“%windir%\system32\SHUTDOWN.exe -s -t 01”

(Without the inverted commas. *Make sure that you include the spaces, as shown in the example.)

* Press return on your keyboard.

* In the following text-input bar, below the words “Type a name for this shortcut”,  type “Shut Down Computer”. (Without the inverted commas.) : -

* Press return on your keyboard

* You’ll now see that you have a brand new icon on your desktop with a picture, thus: –

* Click that icon and the computer will begin to shut down normally, as if by magic.

The shortcut’s properties should look like this: -

Now you can shut down your computer from your desktop!

… Which all goes to show that not only do I take you beyond the comfort-zone with this blog; I also actually improve your comfort-zone too. – All without having to find that elusive “any” key.

- Long live Windows XP!