The shutdown feature and
command is available in
Microsoft Windows,
ReactOS,
HP MPE/iX, and in a number of
Unix and
Unix-like operating systems such as
Apple macOS.
Microsoft Windows and ReactOS , in
Windows Vista and later versions of Microsoft Windows. The above is from
Windows 7. In
Microsoft Windows and
ReactOS, a PC or server is shut down by selecting the item from the
Start menu on the desktop. Options include shutting down the system and powering off, automatically restarting the system after shutting down, or putting the system into
stand-by mode. Just like other operating systems, Windows has the option to prohibit selected users from shutting down a computer. On a home PC, every user may have the shutdown option, but in computers on large networks (such as
Active Directory), an administrator can revoke the access rights of selected users to shut down a Windows computer. In Windows, a program can shut down the system by calling the ExitWindowsEx or NtShutdownSystem function.
Command-line interface There is also a shutdown
command that can be executed within a
command shell window.
shutdown.exe is the
command-line shutdown application (located in
%windir%\System32\shutdown.exe) that can shut down the user's computer or another computer on the user's network. Different parameters allow different functions. More than one parameter can be used at a time for this command.
Apple macOS power management dialog box In
Apple macOS the computer can be shut down by choosing "Shut Down…" from the
Apple Menu, by pressing key/button (or key), or by pressing the power key to bring up the power management dialog box and selecting button "Shut down". An administrator may also use the Unix shutdown
command as well. It can also be shut down by pressing key/button (or key) or clicking Shut Down on the Apple Menu while holding the key, but this will not prompt the user anything at all. On newer and some older Apple computers, starting with
Mac OS 9, the user is given a time limit in which the computer will automatically shut down if the user does not click the "Shut Down" button.
Unix and Linux In
Unix and
Linux, the shutdown command can be used to turn off or
reboot a computer. Only the
superuser or a user with special privileges can shut the system down. One commonly issued form of this command is shutdown -h now, which will shut down a system immediately. Another one is shutdown -r now to reboot. Another form allows the user to specify an exact time or a delay before shutdown: shutdown -h 20:00 will turn the computer off at 8:00 PM, and shutdown -r +1 will automatically reboot the machine in one minute of issuing the command. ==See also==