Shutdown (computing)

Shutdown (computing)
Windows XP shutdown dialog box
Shutdown options have been moved from a separate dialog box to the start menu, in Windows Vista and later versions of Microsoft Windows. The above is from Windows 7.
Mac OS X power management dialog box
Ubuntu 8.04 (Hardy Heron) shutdown dialog box

To shut down or power off a computer is to remove power from a computer's main components in a controlled way. After a computer is shut down, main components such as CPUs, RAM modules and hard disk drives are powered down, although some internal components, such as an internal clock, may retain power.

Contents

Implementations

Windows

In Microsoft Windows, a PC or server is shut down by selecting the Shutdown 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. There is also a shutdown command that can be executed within a command shell window. shutdown.exe is the command-line shutdown application that can shut down the user's computer or another computer on the user's network.

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 network computers, an administrator can revoke the access rights of selected users to shut down a Windows computer. Nowadays there are many software utilities which can automate the task of shutting down a Windows computer, enabling automatic computer control. The Windows Shutdown website lists various software utilities to automate the task of shutting down.

Mac OS X

In Mac OS X the computer can be shut down by choosing "Shut Down…" from the Apple Menu or by pressing the power key to bring up the power management dialog box. An administrator may also use the Unix shutdown command as well.

Unix and Linux

In Unix and Linux, the shutdown command can be used to turn off or reboot a computer. Only the superuser 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 -t 60 will automatically reboot the machine within 60 seconds (one minute) of issuing the command.

See also

Further reading

External links

  • shutdown.cc – an article about various ways of automated and manual shutting down of Microsoft Windows

Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.

Игры ⚽ Поможем сделать НИР

Look at other dictionaries:

  • Shutdown — may refer to:* Automatic Laser Shutdown * Cold shutdown * Government shutdown * Shutdown (The West Wing) * Shutdown (computing) * Shutdown (economics) * Shutdown (nuclear reactor) * Shutdown (web series) * Shutdown of thermohaline circulation *… …   Wikipedia

  • shutdown — shut‧down [ˈʆʌtdaʊn] noun [countable] 1. COMMERCE the closing of a factory, business etc: • a nuclear plant shutdown 2. COMPUTING MANUFACTURING the act of stopping a computer or large mach …   Financial and business terms

  • Hibernation (computing) — Hibernation in computing is powering down a computer while retaining its state. Upon hibernation, the computer saves the contents of its random access memory (RAM) to a hard disk or other non volatile storage. Upon resumption, the computer is… …   Wikipedia

  • English in computing — English is the lingua franca in computing and on the Internet, and the computing vocabulary of many languages is borrowed from English. Scientific vocabulary In many languages, Greek and Latin roots constitute an important part of the scientific… …   Wikipedia

  • Large Hadron Collider — LHC redirects here. For other uses, see LHC (disambiguation). Coordinates: 46°14′N 06°03′E / 46.233°N 6.05°E / 46.233; 6.05 …   Wikipedia

  • Computers and Information Systems — ▪ 2009 Introduction Smartphone: The New Computer.       The market for the smartphone in reality a handheld computer for Web browsing, e mail, music, and video that was integrated with a cellular telephone continued to grow in 2008. According to… …   Universalium

  • Malware — Malware, short for malicious software, consists of programming (code, scripts, active content, and other software) designed to disrupt or deny operation, gather information that leads to loss of privacy or exploitation, gain unauthorized access… …   Wikipedia

  • Pmset — In computing, pmset is a command line utility to manipulate power management settings under the Darwin and Mac OS X operating systems. It can assign sleep settings, schedule sleep and wake times, and display power information. History The pmset… …   Wikipedia

  • Persistence (computer science) — This article is about state outliving processes. For immutable data structures, see Persistent data structure. Persistence in computer science refers to the characteristic of state that outlives the process that created it. Without this… …   Wikipedia

  • Technical features new to Windows Vista — This article is part of a series on Windows Vista New features Overview Technical and core system Security and safety Networking technologies I/O technologies Management and administration Removed features …   Wikipedia

Share the article and excerpts

Direct link
Do a right-click on the link above
and select “Copy Link”