How to Add System Power Shortcuts on Windows 8 Start Screen
Windows 8 is without a doubt one of the best operating systems from Microsoft and has a greater number of features as compared to Windows 7. Apart from the cool new features, Microsoft has also made some other changes that are not too popular with a lot of users. One such drastic change in Windows 8 is the removal of Start Menu and its replacement with Start Screen. With the Start Menu gone, all Power options have now been transferred to the Charms Bar. Thus if users want to Shutdown, Restart or Hibernate the system, they need to go to the Charms Bar. Doing so every time they wish to access Power options in Windows 8 can become quite annoying for some users.
To solve the above issue, I have previously published a few tools and articles like Use Windows 8 Context Menu to Shutdown or Restart Computer, Add Shutdown and Restart Shortcuts to the Windows 8 Quick Menu ,Power Options Tiles for Windows 8 Metro Wall and How to Create Metro Tiles for Shutdown Restart and Log Off in Windows-8.
While searching for better solutions on the internet, I found another small tweak to add Shutdown, Restart, Sleep and Hibernate tiles on the Windows 8 Start Screen without performing any complicated steps. This is not a Windows program but it works like a charm and is very easy to follow. A Windows 8 user Richard Hay has developed a small package with tweaks which can add Power Options to the Windows 8 Start Screen as Tiles. To use his trick, first of all, you have to download a small shortcut package file from here.
Now open the following location in Windows Explorer and extract the downloaded compressed file:
%appdata%/Microsoft/Windows/Start Menu/Programs/
Actually, the compressed ZIP files have shortcut links of the Power Options and when you place these shortcut links into the above location they will automatically start appearing on the Start Screen. No further settings are required. To ensure that you have done everything right, go to the Start Screen and check whether the Shutdown, Sleep, Restart, and Hibernate Tiles are available or not.
You can also right-click on these shortcuts and pin them to the Windows 8 Taskbar. If you add Power Options to the Taskbar, you can access them with more ease.
Source:Windows Observer
