Shortcuts for system functions in Windows 2000

I have a shortcut on the desktop of my PC which automatically locks the computer when I double-click on it, just like if I'd pressed ctrl-alt-del and pressed Enter (if you use Windows XP you can press Windows key and L). Now, you can say 'why not just press ctrl...' but I find it's handy sometimes, and you can put it on the quick launch bar so it's only one click to trigger it. If you have your hand on the mouse it's quicker than moving back to the keyboard.

To create the shortcut, do the following:

Right Click on desktop and do New -> Shortcut

In the 'Type the location of the item:' box put:

C:\WINNT\SYSTEM32\RUNDLL32.EXE user32.dll,LockWorkStation

And click next. In 'Type a name for this shortcut' put in a description and hit 'Finish'

That's it.

This works fine in Windows 2000, and a friend has it set up in Windows XP and reports that it works there as well.

After telling someone how I did that, he asked if there was a way of getting shortcuts for Task Manager, log off and shutdown / restart. A bit of Googling came up with these:

Task Manager:
Create a new shortcut, in the location box type 'c:\winnt\system32\taskmgr.exe', call it something, that's it.

For shutdown:
c:\winnt\system32\shutdown.exe -s -t 0

Then restart:
c:\winnt\system32\shutdown.exe -r -t 0

Log off:
c:\winnt\system32\shutdown.exe -l -t 0

Paul Silver, September 2003