Microsoft is closing in the distance between its Desktop Windows OS and mobile OS. Right now the Desktop version is Windows 8.1 while the mobile version for smartphones is Windows Phone 8.1. If Microsoft goes on with the current pace, we will be able to see Windows completely integrated uniformly across all platforms like Desktops, Laptops, Tablets and Smartphones.
This comes with a lot of convenience that one can work on the same kind of environment and synchronize across all devices. Right now, Windows 8.1 has quite a lot of differences with Windows Phone 8.1. One difference is the way both Operating Systems are shutdown.
Windows 8.1 comes with a lot of ways to shutdown. You can use the command line to shutdown Windows 8.1 or access it from the Charms Bar settings. You may like to read our 7 quick ways to shutdown Windows 8 which also applies to Windows 8.1.
In this article, we are going to discuss one more fun way to shutdown Windows 8 and Windows 8.1. We will add a slide to shutdown effect which is the default method of shutting down Windows Phone 8 or Windows Phone 8.1.
Slide To Shutdown Feature in Windows 8.1
You will be amazed to read that Windows 8.1 already supports Slide to Shutdown effect by default. The only problem is that this is hidden way inside the System32 folder of Windows. Microsoft may have kept it for future use or for use on tablets like Microsoft Surface etc.
But we will be able to use the same slide to shutdown effect to shutdown our Windows 8 and Windows 8.1 by following the steps below:
- Right Click on Desktop –> New –> Shortcut
- In the location field, enter “slidetoshutdown”
- Type the name of the shortcut. You can name the shortcut anything you like.
Everything is done. Now whenever you run the shortcut, you will see the slide to shutdown menu on your Windows 8.1 PC.
One thing you must take care is that although it is slide to shutdown menu and you will need to slide the upper part of the screen downwards to shut down Windows, if you accidentally click on the upper part of the screen, Windows will start shutting down automatically without the sliding effect to be used.
You can also configure a keyboard shortcut for this effect. This makes sure that you can shutdown Windows 8.1 using a simple keyboard shortcut. Just right click the shortcut we created from above steps, go to its Properties. Click on the Shortcut key field (Alt + K) and then press any single key which you want to use as a shortcut. For example, if I press the S key, the shortcut will become Ctrl + Alt + S.
Pressing this shortcut will automatically trigger the slide to shutdown effect in Windows 8 and Windows 8.1.
Slide To Shutdown may not be the best way to shutdown Windows 8/8.1 but it is surely a fun way to do the job and you can always amaze your friends by using this effect on your laptop or computer. Do it and let us know about your experience in the comments below.
