Windows OS Desktop Shortcuts

Here's a small collection of shortcuts to be used on your desktop. They're useful if you want to logoff, shutdown, or restart your PC just by double-clicking on a desktop icon. I've tested these shortcuts with Windows 95, 98, Me, XP, and Vista.

For each shortcut you wish to create:

Right-click the icon you wish to save ť left-click Save Picture As... ť navigate to the Windows or WinNT folder on your hard drive ť left-click Save.
[note 1: the round icons look terrible in Windows XP, and almost as bad displayed here online; but, when you download them for use in Win 98 or Me, the corner shading disappears completely, and they look kinda cool.]
[note 2: The icons for Shut Down and Log Off are already in Windows XP, so there's no need to download these --- they're only here for the Win 9x users. Restart Windows is for users of all Windows versions --- Microsoft didn't include a Restart icon in its collection.]

Shut Down 24-bit	Shut Down 256 colors	Shut Down 24-bit - round	Shut Down 256 colors - round
Restart Windows 24-bit	Restart Windows 256 colors	Restart Windows 24-bit - round	Restart Windows 256 colors - round
Log Off 24-bit	Log Off 256 colors	Safe Mode 16 colors

Highlight the shortcut text for your operating system ť right-click the highlighted text ť left-click Copy.

	[Win XP , Win 2K]	[Win 95, 98, ME]	[Alternative, see * first]

Shut Down	shutdown -s -t 00	rundll user,exitwindows	Wizmo quiet shutdown!

Restart Windows	shutdown -r -t 00	rundll user,exitwindowsexec	Wizmo quiet reboot!

Log Off	shutdown -l -t 00	<not available in Win 9x>	Wizmo quiet logoff!

Right-click your desktop ť left-click New ť Shortcut ť right-click the blank dialog box ť left-click Paste.
Left-click Next ť name the shortcut (I recommend using the names from the left-most column, above... which you could also Copy and Paste) ť click Finish.
Right-click the just-created shortcut ť left-click Properties. In the Run: window, left-click the down arrow next to Normal Window, and set the shortcut to run Minimized.
Left-click Change Icon ť Browse ť navigate to your Windows or WinNT folder ť select the icon file you want to use for this shortcut ť Click Open ť OK ť OK.
[remember: if you're running Win 2000 or XP, you won't need to browse for an icon for Shut Down or Restart --- Windows will show you the contents of Shell32.dll, which contains the icons for these two functions.]

The Safe Mode shortcut is a special case. It won't work in Win 2000 or Win XP. In Win 95, 98, or ME, it will work once you've created a batch file in the root folder of C: called SafeMode.bat.

Open My Computer ť C: drive ť right-click a blank spot in the root folder window ť left-click New ť Text Document ť name it SafeMode.bat ť press [Enter] to save the new file ť left-click Yes to change the extension from .txt to .bat.
Highlight the following text ť right-click the highlighted text ť left-click Copy.

@echo off
win /d:m
exit
Right-click C:\SafeMode.bat ť left-click Open ť right-click in the blank file window ť left-click Paste ť [X] out of the file ť Yes to save the changes.
Right-click a blank spot on the desktop ť left-click New ť Shortcut
In the blank dialog box, type C:\SafeMode.bat ť Next ť in the blank dialog box, type Restart in Safe Mode ť Finish.
>Right-click the new shortcut, and select Properties ť Programs ť Advanced.
Select "MS-DOS Mode", and deselect "Warn before entering MS-DOS mode".
Click OK to exit the Advanced options screen, and click Change Icon ť Browse, navigate to your Windows folder, and select safemode.ico.
Click OK to save the icon and return to the Programs screen, then click OK again to save all changes.

[note 3: If the finished products don't look as cool as you'd hoped, right-click the desktop ť left-click Properties ť in the Display Properties window, click on the Effects tab ť check the box next to Show Icons Using All Possible Colors ť click OK to exit the Display Properties window.]

* Some brands of PC running Win 9x won't let you use desktop shortcuts to shut down or restart; it's also possible to break the ability using Microsoft's MSCONFIG program. Rather than worry about whether your hardware/software combination will or won't allow the shortcut, you could just download Steve Gibson's cool little program called WIZMO ; save it to your Windows folder before creating the 'Alternative' shortcuts shown in the table.
[If you create the shortcut before saving the executable file to your hard drive, Windows will hiccup and tell you it can't find the target file, or some such nonsense.]