Create Slide to Shutdown Shortcut in Windows 10

Back in Windows 8.1, Microsoft added a new way to shutdown the operating system with the "Slide to shutdown" feature. Windows 10 also comes with this option. Slide To Shutdown provides a special user interface to shutdown the OS with a gesture. Let's create a shortcut to activate this feature in Windows 10.

The Slide to Shutdown was created for PCs and tablets with Connected Standby. Connected Standby is a power management feature similar to what smartphones have. So, it's typically only enabled on tablets and Windows 10 Mobile devices and not enabled on most Desktop PCs and x86 tablets which do not support the Connected Standby sleep state. But you can still use this Slide to Shutdown feature.  All you need is to create a special shortcut.

To create the Slide to Shutdown shortcut in Windows 10, do the following.

Right click the empty space on your Desktop. Select New - Shortcut in the context menu (see the screenshot).

In the shortcut target box, type the following:

%windir%\System32\SlideToShutDown.exe

On the next page, type Slide to Shut down for the shortcut name, and click on the Finish button to close the New shortcut wizard.

Alternatively, navigate using File Explorer into the following folder:

C:\windows\system32

Drag the slidetoshutdown.exe file to Desktop while holding down the Alt key. This will create a shortcut on the Desktop.

Now, right click the shortcut you created and select Properties.

On the Shortcut tab, click on the button Change Icon. Specify a new icon from the %SystemRoot%\system32\shell32.dll file. For example, you can use the icon highlighted on the screenshot below.

Click OK to apply the icon, then click OK to close the shortcut properties dialog window.

You are done.

When you double-click the shortcut you created, it will launch Slide to shut down feature on your PC.

You can use the touch screen or click and drag it with the mouse to the bottom of the screen to power off your device. When the Slide to Shut down user interface is active, you can press the Enter key to turn off your device.

Tip: You can pin the shortcut you created to the taskbar for faster access to this feature. Right click the shortcut and select "Pin to taskbar" from the context menu.

That's it.