How do I shutdown or restart my Windows computer via command prompt?

Microsoft Windows offers several ways to shut down or restart your computer, one of which is via the command prompt.

To access the command prompt window from Vista or Windows 7:

On a Windows XP computer:

From an open command prompt window, you can type shutdown, and then the option you wish to execute.

To shut down your computer type: shutdown /s

To restart your computer type: shutdown /r

To log off your computer type: shutdown /l

For a complete list of options type: shutdown /?

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