Of all the questions I’ve seen regarding the Windows 8 Consumer Preview, “How do I shutdown?” seems to be the most prevalent. I’ve spent my share of time on various social networks showing people how to do it but that just doesn’t scale. As such, I’ve decided to instead simply consolidate the various answers to the question. I’ve broken them down into two categories; Keyboard/Mouse and Touch.

Keyboard/Mouse Users

WinKey + I This key combination will bring up the Settings panel. There are number of options here, including the Power icon in the middle of the bottom row. From here you can Sleep, Restart or Shutdown.

WinKey + L This key combination will Lock your PC. When you clear the wallpaper you are presented with the Login screen. In the lower left of this screen is that handy Power icon again. From here you can Sleep, Restart or Shutdown.

ALT-F4 This option is only available when you’re on the Desktop (WinKey+D gets you there). Pressing F4 will bring up a dialog with Sleep, Restart and Shutdown options. This one is a bit obscure given that you have to be on the Desktop but it is there nonetheless.

CTRL-ALT-DEL The 3-finger solute lives on. When you solute Windows 8 you are taken too a full screen of options and in the lower left is a handy Power icon. From here you can Sleep, Restart or Shutdown.

Touch Users

Using touch you can getting to the Settings panel (WinKey+I) by bringing up the Charms. To do this, swipe in from the right and then select Settings.

Push The Button

Okay, I lied. The following both a 3rd category. I apologize€¦.a little. 

We have become trained to operate computers in a certain way. Sometime around the mid-90’s we learned to never hit the power button and instead click Start to Shutdown. Well, you can stop that silliness. Hit the power button people. Wait, your laptop simply goes to sleep when you do that and you want a full Shutdown? That can be solved. Go into the Control Panel and search for “Button”. The first item is called “Change what the power buttons do”. In my case I have Close The Lid set to Sleep and Power Button set to Shutdown. Works like a charm for me.