Author Topic: Skin Your Shutdown... (Read 36,578 times)

manimatters · « **on:** November 26, 2007, 05:30 PM »

Personally im not a big fan of skinning (mainly because im on a 750mhz processor, and i hate my pc being sluggish

.But one thing ive always wanted is to shutdown windows windows in style! i mean to replace the shutdown option select screen. Even my brother whos not such a software freak wanted this functionality. Recently while stumbling around, i found this great tool or utility or whatever youd like to call it that does exactly that, and nothing else. Thats what i like about it, it isnt a hit on my resources and makes my pc look oh so cooler.

Have a look http://eng.softq.org/sshutdown.htm

Tell me what you guys think.

Nighted · « **Reply #1 on:** November 26, 2007, 07:35 PM »

Yeah, this has been around for a while. Here's another one.

mouser · « **Reply #2 on:** November 26, 2007, 08:03 PM »

Some other fun free stuff on the http://eng.softq.org site too though.

manimatters · « **Reply #3 on:** November 27, 2007, 10:17 AM »

Thanx Nighted

, but the "gehrunner" link you provided to doesnt replace the shutdown of start menu. Although you can remove the default button from the start menu and add your own shortcut to gehrunner, but it still wouldnt be at the bottom of the start menu like the default one. Ive gotten used to that position for my shutdown button!

PhilB66 · « **Reply #4 on:** November 27, 2007, 11:07 AM »

Link to mod tutorials:
Modify the WinXP Shutdown Dialog
Windows Security and Shutdown dialogs 2K/XP (Classic Mode)

Curt · « **Reply #5 on:** November 27, 2007, 03:36 PM »

Oh, so Shutdown can have a dialog?

- for what purpose? Is it to ask if I really want to shutdown?

I hit the appropiate hotkey, and XP will shutdown / reboot without any questions asked.

manimatters · « **Reply #6 on:** November 27, 2007, 03:47 PM »

Thanks a bunch for those excellent mods Phil! Doing mods like these give you a kick that no "software" replacements can give. Im goin to try the mod u gave, plus the site u pointed to also has other mods that are supercool. Those should keep me busy for some time. Thanx again.

manimatters · « **Reply #7 on:** November 27, 2007, 03:51 PM »

If you want a noquestions asked type shutdown, just take a look at this:
http://www.xp-smoker.com/freeware.html
Works like lightning. I was in dire need of it because whenever my dad leaves after working on the computer, although he presses the shutdown button, and gives the command to shutdown, but never waits for the computer to actually turn off and turns off the ups power supply. This utility beats my dad to the power button!!

J-Mac · « **Reply #8 on:** November 30, 2007, 10:10 PM »

Wow - I was just going to start a new topic for my question, but this one sounds so close I think I'll hijack it for a moment if no one minds.

I have a few maintenance processes that need to restart my PC after running. These are all scheduled tasks so taht I do not have to wait around for them to complete.

But..... I also have a few programs that insist on throwing up a warning when the PC is shutting down - and of course they can delay or completely stop the shutdown process. And I really hate that!! One is a surveillance camera system I installed in my house. When PC is shutting down the Command Center software for the camera system pops up a warning that the camera system will not be monitoring/recording if the PC shuts down. And of course the always most-hated "dwin cannot start because the unit is shutting down..." or whatever that error reporting piece of junk says! I have already "removed" the ability of dwin to even run using Microsoft's instructions (deleting the Aedebug registry key), but for the last 8 or 10 months that fix doesn't work anymore. It still does this even without the reg key there.

I think the methods mentioned in this thread all work only if you are manually shutting down. If not, I apologize in advance. (I'm going to try them after posting this) Does anyone know how to eliminate such shutdown-stopping dialogs completely?

Thanks!

Jim

lanux128 · « **Reply #9 on:** November 30, 2007, 10:34 PM »

Quote from: manimatters on November 27, 2007, 03:51 PM

If you want a noquestions asked type shutdown, just take a look at this:
http://www.xp-smoker.com/freeware.html

i was curious about this program previously but after this discussion, i stopped using it.. just letting you know.

Nighted · « **Reply #10 on:** November 30, 2007, 10:42 PM »

Quote from: J-Mac on November 30, 2007, 10:10 PM

I think the methods mentioned in this thread all work only if you are manually shutting down. If not, I apologize in advance. (I'm going to try them after posting this) Does anyone know how to eliminate such shutdown-stopping dialogs completely?

Thanks!

Jim

NirCmd (Parameters: exitwin shutdown force)
Sysinternals PsTools
Smart Shutdown Classic
Shutter
Switch Off

Shutter and Switch Off both have web interfaces.

J-Mac · « **Reply #11 on:** December 01, 2007, 05:41 AM »

Quote from: lanux128 on November 30, 2007, 10:34 PM

Quote from: manimatters on November 27, 2007, 03:51 PM
If you want a noquestions asked type shutdown, just take a look at this:
http://www.xp-smoker.com/freeware.html
i was curious about this program previously but after this discussion, i stopped using it.. just letting you know.

Yeah - I was a little worried about this one. Even on that app's web site it mentions that:

Quote

SuperFast Shutdown

Have you ever wished there was a faster way to shutdown your Windows 2000 or Windows XP computer system? I mean instantly shut it down! Now you can! Just install Super Fast Shutdown and click on one of the desktop icons created to reboot or shutdown instantly.

Warning: Superfast Shutdown is extremely powerful! Use at your own risk! Although it has never been reported, regular usage could possibly cause disk corruption.

And I also don't want to bypass the normal shutdown activities -- I just don't want some warning popup "alerting" me that, in case I was not already aware, the SYSTEM IS SHUTTING DOWN!!! And their app can't run for some odd reason when that happens!! Of course delaying the shutdown until I acknowledge this nugget of wisdom. I wish I could find the commands for these popups and comment them out of the .INI or .DAT file they're in.

Thanks.

Jim

J-Mac · « **Reply #12 on:** December 01, 2007, 05:44 AM »

Quote from: Nighted on November 30, 2007, 10:42 PM

Quote from: J-Mac on November 30, 2007, 10:10 PM
I think the methods mentioned in this thread all work only if you are manually shutting down. If not, I apologize in advance. (I'm going to try them after posting this) Does anyone know how to eliminate such shutdown-stopping dialogs completely?

Thanks!

Jim

NirCmd (Parameters: exitwin shutdown force)
Sysinternals PsTools
Smart Shutdown Classic
Shutter
Switch Off

Shutter and Switch Off both have web interfaces.

Nighted,

You posted the links, but do you know that these accomplish what I'm looking to do? If so, darn - I have a number of Nirsoft apps but I have to keep them on a USB Flash drive - NOD32 keeps quarantining them if I keep them on the hard drive.

And I also have Sysinternals' PS Tools - I just haven't installed all the apps, as I already had the ones I use often installed individually. The others I haven't heard of before but I'll definitely give them a look.

Thanks!

Jim

Nighted · « **Reply #13 on:** December 01, 2007, 12:43 PM »

Yes, they can all force windows to shutdown.

Curt · « **Reply #14 on:** December 01, 2007, 01:17 PM »

WHY CROSS THE RIVER TO GET WATER?

Sorry - I should of course have passed this info in my first post:

Quote from: jgpaiva on May 05, 2006, 12:43 AM

Hum.. Would you be looking for something like Shutdown?
It has a tray menu with a bunch of shutdown options, and if you double-click the tray icon, it shutsdown the computer.

.exe version
.ahk version

Quote from: jgpaiva on November 11, 2007, 09:44 PM

... Just run ShutdownNow.exe when your computer starts, and then when you press F12, the computer will auto-shutdown.
Careful, there is NO message, it just forces the shutdown.

ShutdownNow.ahk (0.25 KB - downloaded 12 times.)
ShutdownNow.exe (196.7 KB - downloaded 13 times.)

I use them both.

J-Mac · « **Reply #15 on:** December 02, 2007, 05:36 AM »

I think the Smart Shutdown Classic it what I can use. I installed that and it has the "force" feature which can mess up the hard disks, but it also has a feature that automatically clicks through any "end process" or similar messages that hang the shutdown until you click the OK button. Three shutdowns now have run through in under 30 seconds - I can certainly live with that!

Thanks all for the input.

Jim

PhilB66 · « **Reply #16 on:** December 04, 2007, 11:56 PM »

DSHUTDOWN might offer a 'safer' / better option for a 'forced' shutdown.

Quick ShutDown is another alternative.

[attach]

J-Mac · « **Reply #17 on:** December 05, 2007, 08:24 AM »

Yeah, I just uninstalled the Slawdog one. It just stopped working and I have had to shutdown the last three times using the power button, because it disables the Windows shutdown commands.

Oh well...

Thanks,

Jim

J-Mac · « **Reply #18 on:** December 05, 2007, 06:12 PM »

Yikes!! Methinks I spoke too soon... (...or acted too late??) Now I cannot shutdown or reboot my PC at all without holding the power button for five seconds - which I always considered to be a last resort. Now it is my only resort.

After installing Slawdog Super Shutdown Classic and reporting that it worked great, it stopped working the very next day. Now that I have uninstalled Slawdog Super Shutdown Classic, I still have to use the power button to shut down my PC.

I checked the registry and only found a few innocuous keys left over from Slawdog, but removing those didn't help either. (Or maybe it will after I reboot - which is the doggone problem!!) Now I'm thinking that Slawdog must have installed - or removed or relocated - a needed DLL, or maybe altered the win.ini file. I'd rather not use System Restore if I can solve this otherwise - too many other changes would be lost, I fear. Wonder if I can view some settings from one of my many backup methods to see if I can find whatever Slawdog changed.

Any ideas out there? Be reasonably kind!

Thanks.

Jim

PS - And wasn't I one of the winners of a year's subscription to Buffer Zone a couple of months ago?? Wasn't that me? (Yes....it was......)

(Actually, I had such a hard time getting the copy, and contacting the developer was so extremely difficult (and weird!) that I decided not to even try it..... Oops!)

Ralf Maximus · « **Reply #19 on:** December 05, 2007, 06:23 PM »

My favorite shutdown method:

shutdown -s -t 01

:-)

J-Mac · « **Reply #20 on:** December 05, 2007, 06:37 PM »

Quote from: Ralf Maximus on December 05, 2007, 06:23 PM

My favorite shutdown method:

shutdown -s -t 01

:-)

Hi Ralf.

Questions about that:

1) What does the '01' do? Timing?

2) Do you call up the command prompt for that from the Start menu? Desktop shortcut? Hotkey?

Thanks!

Jim

Ralf Maximus · « **Reply #21 on:** December 05, 2007, 06:39 PM »

Quote

1) What does the '01' do? Timing?

Yep. 01 = 1 second. If you want 3 minutes, that'd be shutdown -s -t 180

Quote

2) Do you call up the command prompt for that from the Start menu?

CMD prompt. You can put it in a .bat file if you like then drag a shortcut onto your desktop too, or just place the .bat directly on the desktop.

J-Mac · « **Reply #22 on:** December 05, 2007, 09:03 PM »

Thanks Ralf.

Shutdown is still not working at all here, though, regardless of from where I try to initiate it. Start menu, Task Manager, jv16 Powertools 2007, Process Explorer, command line.... All must point to the same Windows utility and since that is apparently not able to work none of the paths to get there are successful.

Sure am glad I have this darned Power button! (Saves me from having to crawl under the desk to unplug the machine!!)

Thanks again.

Jim

Ralf Maximus · « **Reply #23 on:** December 05, 2007, 11:50 PM »

Try:

shutdown -s -f -t 01

-f forces a shutdown regardless of what fails to close properly.

lanux128 · « **Reply #24 on:** December 06, 2007, 02:29 AM »

shutdown is an internal command available from Win2K / WinXP onwards (i think).. Put a shortcut on the desktop and assign a shortcut key..

Usage: shutdown [-i | -l | -s | -r | -a] [-f] [-m \\computername] [-t xx] [-c "comment"] [-d up:xx:yy]

No args	Display this message (same as -?)
-i	Display GUI interface, must be the first option
-l	Log off (cannot be used with -m option)
-s	Shutdown the computer
-r	Shutdown and restart the computer
-a	Abort a system shutdown
-m \\computername	Remote computer to shutdown/restart/abort
-t xx	Set timeout for shutdown to xx seconds
-c "comment"	Shutdown comment (maximum of 127 characters)
-f	Forces running applications to close without warning
-d [u][p]:xx:yy	The reason code for the shutdown • u is the user code • p is a planned shutdown code • xx is the major reason code (positive integer less than 256) • yy is the minor reason code (positive integer less than 65536)

some examples:
shutdown -s -f -t 10 -> shutdown forcefully in ten seconds
shutdown -a -> abort shutdown