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How to create a shutdown and reboot tile in Windows 8

Shutting down or rebooting Windows 8 can be as easy as point, then click, if you want it to be.

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Ed Rhee
Ed Rhee, a freelance writer based in the San Francisco Bay Area, is an IT veteran turned stay-at-home-dad of two girls. He focuses on Android devices and applications while maintaining a review blog at techdadreview.com.
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Ed Rhee
Windows 8 start screen w/shutdown tile
Screenshot by Ed Rhee/CNET

Updated, October 19, 2012: Replaced Windows 8 Consumer Preview screenshots with those from the final version of Windows 8.

Without a Start button, properly shutting down Windows 8 can be a bit of a chore. If you want to shut down or reboot your Windows 8 PC by just clicking on a tile from the Start screen or a shortcut on the desktop, here's how:

Step 1: Right-click on a open area of your desktop, then go to New and select Shortcut.

Create new shortcut
Screenshot by Ed Rhee/CNET

Step 2: In the location box, type shutdown /p to shut down Windows 8 immediately or shutdown /r /t 0 to reboot Windows 8 immediately. Click Next to continue.

Windows 8 shutdown command
Screenshot by Ed Rhee/CNET

Step 3: Type a name for your shortcut, then click the Finish button.

Step 4: Right-click on the shortcut from your desktop and select Pin to Start.

Pin shortcut to start screen
Screenshot by Ed Rhee/CNET

Step 5: Go back to the Start screen and verify that your new shutdown tile appears.

That's it. Now when you want to shut down or reboot Windows 8, you can just double-click on the desktop shortcut or click the Start screen tile. Be sure to check out the rest of CNET's complete guide to using Windows 8.