How To Shut Down Your Windows Computer from the Command Line
The Command Prompt app can be used to shut down a computer.
Step 1: You can open your PC's Start menu.
You can either click the Windows logo in the bottom-right corner of the screen or press the Win key on your keyboard.You can open the Start menu with your mouse.
Step 2: Go to the "Search" field and type command prompt.
The Command Prompt app will appear at the top of the search menu when you search for it.The "Search" bar can be brought up by hovering your mouse in the top-right corner of the screen and clicking the magnifying glass.You can click the app on the right side of the Start menu if you're using Windows XP.
Step 3: Command Prompt can be right-clicked.
It is similar to a black box.This will prompt a drop-down menu.You can type cmd into the Run window if you're using Windows XP.
Step 4: Click Run if you want to be an administrator.
It is at the top of the menu.Command Prompt will be opened with administrator privileges if you do that.Clicking when prompted will confirm this choice.You can open Command Prompt if you're using Windows XP.Command Prompt won't run in administrator mode if you're on a restricted, public, or school computer.
Step 5: You can type shutdown into Command Prompt.
Within a minute of this command being issued, your computer will be shut down.If you want to shut down your computer immediately, type shutdown -s -t00 into Command Prompt.If you want to shut down a set number of seconds or minutes from the current time, type shutdown -s -t.).
Step 6: Press Enter.
Running your command will prompt your computer to shut down.Within a minute, it will do so.If you have a lot of programs open, Windows will close them for you.Before you shut down, make sure your work is saved.