“Shutting off Windows used to be a simple matter of clicking the Start button and choosing the ‘Shut down’ option,” Lance Whitney reports for CNET. “But the Windows 8 beta has no Start button. So how do you shut it down?”
“Microsoft has concocted a series of manuevers and keyboard shortcuts to shut down the new OS,” Whitney reports. “Though slower and clumsier than going through the Start button, the new steps at least let you fully turn Windows 8 off.”
Whitney reports, “The most basic way to shut down Windows 8 is through the Charms bar.”
Read about all of the various machinations required to turn off an OS comprises of tiles meant to hide a severe case of AppLack™ here.
MacDailyNews Take: Charms bar? Who thought that up, a Care Bear?
“Start” to stop was so Microsoftian, so emblematic of the non-intuitiveness of that bloated piece of Mac wannabe dreck, we almost can’t believe it’s gone. Well, as Whitney explains, “none of them [ways to shut down Windows 8] are quick or convenient,” so Windows 8 obviously remains Microsoft through and through.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “The_Wzrd” for the heads up.]
The fastest way is to just wait for the next BSOD.
Charms…. cute names as you try to convince yourself that you aren’t in computing hell
Users of Windows 8 will be able to fart rainbows.
… and shit bricks!
=:~)
So when the Charms bar crashes, which you know it will, can people say, “They’re after me lucky charms!”
Seriously though, this thing is really hard to use with a track pad. Maybe touch or a mouse is better, but I’m pretty lost in the Metro UI. I didn’t feel that way when I first picked up an iPod Touch. (Or, heck even Android for that matter.)
CNUT has a gallery or 30 years of Windows. Look how horrible it looked compared to the Mac. Then Windows 95 came and blatantly ripped off the Mac.
http://news.cnet.com/2300-10805_3-10011496.html?tag=txt;post.gallery
I downloaded the Win 8 review and installed it on VMWare Fusion. It’s rough as one would expect something almost a year from release might be, but the shutdown was no problem. Click on your user name and you get the options associated with the start button.
I don’t like Metro, but it is clear Microsoft has been trying hard and has come up with some good ideas if they follow through and finish the job. I somehow seriously doubt pro users are going to take to the Metro interface which I would turn off if it were my working OS.
“it’s rough as one would expect something almost a year from release might be”
Hah, that implies Microsoft will actually spend the ensuing months smoothing W8’s rough edges. They’re either going to leave them alone, or somehow find a way make them even rougher.
So shutting down Windows 8 is a charm!
Using Parallels just choose shut down from the contextual menu. Well, for the developer preview. But I’m sure it will work with the new even bulkier new one. Haven’t installed it yet to rest but was not impressed with mango.
Charms bar is where they serve the KOOL AID!
Lots of it will be needed to keep the PC sheep in line for this “up…grade”, like in “up… your… you know!
I’ve been trying out the Windows 8 preview. Android blatantly ripped off iOS. At least Microsoft tried something slightly different. It’s not intuitive (like Microsoft probably thinks), but Windows users may like it better than Windows 7.
Overall, it’s desperate.
I downloaded it on release day and its horrible. By far the worse OS they ever put out. Might be worse than 3.0. Going from XP to Windows 7 buried options, now with Windows 8 its a nightmare trying to get around without the Start menu. Its to much change all at once. Maybe on a tablet it would be ok, but not on a PC with a mouse and keyboard, its a big piece of trash as it stands now. I think they need to take a couple of more years and do it right instead of pushing it out this year as I believe is the plan. But look at the past, every other OS is a failure. Windows 7 was a success now its time for another failure and the next OS will probably be another success if history repeats itself.
The Metro interface is designed to work best on a touchscreen device. I’m sure you would call IOS a “big piece of trash” if you tried to use same on a Mac (Where you would have no mouse or keyboard support at all.).
FWIW, it’s kind of ludicrous to claim every other version of Windows a failure when even Vista ha(s)d a user base over 20 times the size of OSX.
Just start 3 or 4 video streams.
That used to shut them down for me….
The fastest way to shutting down Windows 8 is to never turn it on in the first place. Save yourself the anguish and trouble. – A recovering Microsofholic.
This is the most hilarious thread of comments I’ve read on MDN in months!
I think ‘Charms’ is a subliminal attempt to market ‘Lucky Charms’ cereal!! I’m sure a good Abbot & Costello routine could be made from ‘press start to stop’ and no start to stop, ‘now use charms bar.’ Anyone up to it?! 🙂
Abbott: How do you turn it off?
Costello: Start
Abbott: How?
Costello: Start
Abbott: Stop!
Costello: Exactly
Costello: I got a new Windoze computer, where’s the ‘Start’ button?
Abbott: There is no ‘Start’ button.
Costello: So how do I turn it off if there is no ‘Start’ button?
Abbott: You use a ‘Charm.’
Costello: My computer is charmed?
Abbott: No, you use a ‘Charm.’
Costello: So now I got a VooDoo computer! Do I need a Witch Doctor?
Abbott: No, I told you; you need to use a ‘Charm.’
Costello: So where do I find the ‘Charm?’
Abbott: On the ‘Charm Bar.’
Costello: I get a’Charm’ at a ‘Charm Bar?!’ I give up! My computer is ‘Cursed!’ I’m getting a Mac!
I don’t turn off Windows 8. Windows 8 turns ME off.
Same here. Windows been a turnoff for a long time.
There will be more mothers around the world calling their son and asking:
“how I turn this off?”
and then… how ti explain them what the hell the “charm bar” is!!!
LOL
I would suggest not bothering with Windows 8 and get a Mac with OSX that has a command called shutdown in one simple menu!
What a piece of garbage Windows 8 is. Is it an OS or a game? Charms bar, really?
The best way to turn off Windows is throw it out of one!
I had an old version of Windows in the house, left over from 1997. I had to get rid of it though, it was frightening the children.
It would be a LOT easier and MUCH better for the global user community if it was just switched off – for good.
shutdown?????? I never shut my macbook down. Jus close the lid, take it to the next place, open up and keep going. All this shutdown stuff. Is there one on my mac? Where can I find it, I’ll take a picture just in case I ever need it.
For those who have actually drilled down in W8 (wait), the Metro lipstick simply obscures the underlying and familiar Win7 controls. Sublime Text 2 installs just like it does on Win7. An HTML5/CSS3/JavaScript/JQuery web app works in IE10 exactly like it does with IE9, Safari, Firefox, and Chrome on Win7. W8 may appeal to those with Windows phones — the rest will flock to OS X or remain entrenched with Win7 without the lipstick.
You fanboys are hilarious. I’ve been a Mac user since about 1994 but I’m not one of you zealots that has his head so far up his behind as to think that nothing else exists in the PC world that is a good product and who feels the need to slam everything else and especially Windows.
A while back I had a Dell laptop fall into my hands for next to nothing. This unit was manufactured in 2006 and when it got to me it had Windows XP on it. I upgraded the RAM to the max 4GB it will take, got a super cheap deal on a T7200 2.0GHz Core 2 Duo cpu to drop in it and lastly I bought a 500GB 7200rpm drive that some guy had pulled from his MacBook Pro for $40. Even if I had paid full used market value for this unit I would still only have roughly $350 into it, even with all the upgrades. The last upgrade, and one of the points to this post, was to install Windows 7.
Windows 7 is far and away the best OS Microsoft has ever produced and after having sufficient time to put it through it’s paces, on an almost 6 year old laptop, I can honestly say that I have no complaints and quite frankly I would go so far as to say that the Windows 7 user experience is quite pleasant and obviously doesn’t require that much in the way of hardware to run nicely. Even without a dedicated graphics card in this laptop the Aero features still work and the OS appearance is as nice as any flavor of OS X.
I took a quick look at everymac.com to see what the equivalent MacBook Pro from the same era had to offer in features etc and with the exception of the CPU which is 2.16GHz in the MBP my little Dell is superior in ever specification including the 8X Dual Layer drive. The MBP is still showing a retail used price of between $800-1000 so even if you go way beyond fair and knock that down to $600 for a decent shape used unit, my Dell would still be only a little over half of that.
Feature for feature and then on to price my Dell beats the MBP hands down by a wide margin. And like I said, Windows 7 has been an excellent experience. I did spend a little money on security software(anti-virus, spyware etc) but it wasn’t that much and it runs in the background with very little ie a basically unnoticeable performance hit.
Moving on, this Dell was a fun little project but I’m also in the market for a new laptop and I’ll move this one on to my g/f or something. I’ve been pricing various models and there is no way in hell I will be buying a new MacBook Pro. The price disparity between the MBP fitted out the way i want it and say a Toshiba with the exact same feature set, is hundreds of dollars. Now that my little Dell has given me an appreciation for Windows 7, where I previously would have balked at the Toshiba based on OS, now it’s an easy decision to grab it or something like it over the MBP.
Apple makes good products but given that all of the components are the same as everyone elses they can’t justify the huge price difference any longer.
There’s just no disputing that.
Sigh. This blog is not WindowsDailyNews, yet many of us have XP or Win7 present from virtualized or multi-boot solutions. My best friend uses a MacBook Air for work, but his go to machine at home is a dual-boot XP/Win7 Dell Inspiron tower. It is his comfort zone, and out of respect and friendship, I will not mock his personal choice — nor yours. Having used Mac, Windows, and multi-platform UNIX boxes spanning a lengthy career, my personal choice remains OS X.
That’s great. How does OS X run on it?
‘themacguy’ <- Oh look, an old world anonymous coward anti-Apple troll.
There’s just no disputing that.
Disputed: Every Mac has consistently been LESS expensive than the equivalent Windows box because the ACTUAL cost of any computer is:
1) Shelf Price
+
2) Total Cost of Ownership (TCO)
–
3) Return On Investment (ROI)
The TCO of Windows boxes is so high and their ROI is so low that their cost is consistently HIGHER than equivalent Macs.
Illustrations:
• I am STILL running my 1993 Mac Quadra 650, upgraded with a 601 PPC daughterboard, in my office as an imaging workstation.
• I am STILL running a 24/7 FTP server on the Internet from my 1997 PowerMac 9600, upgraded with a G3 900 MHz CPU board.
• I am STILL running older Mac software on my 1998 PowerBook Wallstreet, upgraded with a G4 500 MHz CPU board.
IOW: Macs cost less to run. Macs provide more value. Macs last longer, providing consistent quality results.
Oh, and I’ve been using Microsoft based PCs longer than I’ve been using Macs. I’ve been on the board of the local Windows PC user group for years. Darn, I know what I’m talking about.
Troll deleted. 😆
This will be Granny’s solution for turning off Windows 8:
1) Desktop PC: Pull the electric cord out of the wall.
OR
2) If you gave Granny a laptop: Pull the electric cord out of the wall then waits around for the battery to die.
RESULT:
Oops.
Registry damage.
Darn.
FWIW I just gave up trying to install 8 with Parallels. Hopelessly buggy. Account errors. File access problems. The developer preview was okay. Well, meaning it actually ran.
I work with Windows, and my favorite way to shutdown/restart is through Alt-F4.