How do I shut down a Windows workstation via Remote Desktop?
When you are connected to a workstation via Remote Desktop, the "Turn Off
Computer" option changes to "Disconnect". But what if you really want to
turn off the computer, hibernate it, or put it on stand-by?
Note: These tips work on Windows XP, but there is no guarantee that they
will work in future versions of Windows.
One way to do this is to run Task Manager and select your shutdown option
from the "Shut Down" menu.
Another trick is to click on the desktop and type Alt+F4. This will call up
the shutdown dialog, where you get the usual shutdown options like "Shut
down", "Shut down without installing updates", "Restart", "Stand by", and
"Hibernate".
These next two tricks are documented and will continue to work in future
versions of Windows:
If you're a command line person, you can run shutdown.exe, but that program
supports only shutdown and restart; it doesn't do stand-by or hibernate. But
the shutdown.exe program has a serious flaw: It requires you to have
administrator privileges. If you are a limited user with shutdown
privileges, the shutdown.exe program will complain. (Which means that I
don't use it.)
Finally, if your computer isn't using Fast User Switching, you can type the
Ctrl+Alt+End hotkey, which is the Remote Desktop version of Ctrl+Alt+Del and
consequently takes you to a dialog where you can do various system-type
things, among them logging off and shutting down.
