UPDATE in 2018: Cortana now supports shut down, hibernate, log off and restart commands out of the box and you don’t need to manually add these commands. Refer to our how to use Cortana to shut down, hibernate, restart or log off Windows 10 article for directions.
Cortana, the digital personal assistant in Windows 10, can be used to search files on your PC, track packages, manage your time and calendar, quickly search the web, and find answers for your questions.
While Cortana is still evolving as a personal assistant and not available in all regions, it’s still one of the best features of Windows 10.
One of the limitations of Cortana is that it can’t be used to initiate a shutdown, restart, hibernate or sleep on your Windows 10 PC. This is because there is no command at present to shut down your PC using Cortana.
Many users often use Cortana to get their job done quickly, and looking for ways to use the personal assistant to initiate a shut down, restart or hibernate operation. If you find the Cortana very helpful and want to use the same to shut down, restart, hibernate or sleep your PC, you can do so with a simple workaround.
As you know, Cortana can be used to search files and launch files. Using this feature of Cortana, we can make the personal assistant from Microsoft to shut down, restart, sleep or hibernate your Windows 10 PC. In short, you need to create shortcuts to shut down, restart, hibernate and sleep operations first, and then you need launch one of these files using Cortana to shutdown, restart, hibernate or sleep your computer.
Use Cortana to shutdown, restart, hibernate or sleep Windows 10 PC
Step 1: First we need to create shortcuts for shutdown, restart, hibernate and sleep operations under the following folder.
%userprofile%\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs
So, first open Run command box by simultaneously pressing Windows logo and R keys, type the following path in the field, and then press Enter key to open Programs folder.
The path you need to enter in Run command box is:
It will open Programs folder:
Step 2: Now, right-click on the empty area, click New, click Short, type one of the following commands, enter the name for the shortcut as Shutdown, restart, hibernate or sleep, and then click Finish button to crate the shutdown shortcut.
While creating shortcuts, you need to use the following commands:
For shutdown:
shutdown -s -t 0
For restart:
shutdown -r -t 0
For log off:
Logoff: shutdown -l -t 0
For hibernate:
C:\Windows\System32\rundll32.exe powrprof.dll, SetSuspendState 0,1,0
In the above command, replace “C” with the drive’s letter where Windows 10 is installed.
Step 3: Once the shortcut is ready, you can say Hey Cortana to start Cortana and then say Open shutdown to begin shutting down your computer.
Hope this helps!
Our turn on or off three finger tap to launch Cortana guide might also interest you.
