How to Shutdown Windows 8/8.1 by Closing Your Laptop’s Lid

I was watching Supernatural Season 9 earlier on TV. In this TV show, Sam (one of the Winchestor brothers) just closes his notebook’s lid after doing his research and walks away. This made me wonder if closing the lid would actually shutdown Windows or it would keep running and drain the notebook battery? So after a little digging down in the Windows 8 power settings, I found out the settings that allow you to shutdown or hibernate Windows as soon as you close the notepad lid.

If you want to shutdown your notepad by just closing its lid, then you can follow these simple steps:

  1. Press the hotkey Win+R to open the Run dialog. Type powercfg.cpl in the Run dialog and press Enter.Shutdown Windows by Closing Lid
  2. In the Power Option window that opens up, click on the Choose what closing the lid does from the left side panel.Shutdown Windows by Closing Lid
  3. This would open the power button, sleep button and lid settings. Here you can select what happens when you close the lid when you are on battery or when you are connected to a power outlet. You can choose from Do Nothing, Shutdown and Hibernate. You should choose Shutdown if you want to shutdown Windows as soon as you close the lid.Shutdown Windows by Closing Lid
  4. You can click on the Save changes button to save the settings.

That’s it. Now you can just close the lid of your notebook, put in your backpack and walk away without having to worry about shutting down Windows. It can save your precious time and also the battery life in the long run.