2 Little Known Windows Tricks

Here are a couple of Windows tricks that I pretty much guarantee you don’t know about.

Slide To Shutdown

This trick creates a one-click option to quickly shut down the PC, and it’s achieved via an obscure file that’s been tucked away in the System32 folder for many years:

• Right-click the desktop and select New > Shortcut
• Type in  slidetoshutdown.exe and click Next

• Name the shortcut something appropriate, such as “Slide to Shutdown” or just “Shutdown”
• Click Next and then Finish

Now, when you double-click the new shortcut, a “shade” will drop halfway down the screen. Slide the shade down with the mouse to shut down the PC.

I realize that, in terms of productivity, this trick isn’t all that helpful, but it is something that, when family and/or friends see it, will almost certainly increase your PC cred. 🙂

Frozen Desktop Fix

This is one of those tricks that isn’t guaranteed to work but is worth a try before proceeding to a more drastic solution:

We’ve all experienced a situation where everything appears to be frozen, and the mouse cursor won’t move. Next time this happens, try hitting the keyboard combination: Windows key + CTRL+ SHIFT+ B.

This will restart the graphics driver and potentially return the system to an active state, without needing to perform a hard shutdown. You’ll hear a short beep, the screen will flicker momentarily, and then hopefully, you’ll be able to start working again with a responsive system.

—