World Magazine 2024
Fast Shutdown and Restart for Windows 2000
As most of us know, all Windows versions take their time shutting down and restarting, including Windows 2000. Unfortunately this happens to be one of those minor Windows irritants that just never goes away.
While Windows XP (Whistler) looks promising, as it shuts down reliably even when some rather flaky applications were running, we have been concentrating on Windows 2000 and some of its shutdown and restart problems. Our dissection of Windows XP though has led to our discovery of a fast shutdown and restart method that can be applied to Windows 2000.
You should be aware that this method does work quickly and effectively, just as though you pulled the power cord out of the wall and plugged it back in. It should only be used when there is an imminent need to shut down Windows 2000 immediately, or in the case of a recalcitrant application or service that just won’t die.
To shut down Windows 2000 quickly, try this:
Touch the Ctrl-Alt-Del keys as though you were going to bring up the task manager.
Now hold the Ctrl key down while clicking the Shut Down button.
When you do as above, you’ll get a warning dialog: “If you continue your machine will reboot and any unsaved data will be lost. Use this only as a last resort.”
Indeed, Microsoft wasn’t kidding! If you click OK, the system will reboot immediately, no other warnings, no shutdown screen, no “It is now safe to turn off your computer” splash screen, nothing!
We’ve found that upon restarting, all was well. The “dirty” shutdown bit on the drives was not set, which meant that that any pending writes to those drives (or volumes in the case of NTFS) had been flushed. This works in Terminal Services as well, but in a Terminal Services session, you must use Ctrl-Alt-End, not Ctrl-Alt-Del, to bring up the appropriate window. Just don’t panic when you’re suddenly disconnected, but isn’t that the idea?
Notice: Windows® 95, Windows® 98, Windows® NT, Windows® 2000 and
Microsoft® Office are registered trademarks or trademarks of the Microsoft Corporation.
