An interesting Win10 Key Combo to escape from a frozen computer

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From our own Ax Kramer – I had a program put up an error dialog box which locked up my new Win10 laptop computer. Completely frozen.  No mouse, no tou
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That’s odd, that’s the old “I don’t have a keyboard with a windows key, but I need the start menu” button.

Also, CTRL+SHIFT+ESC brings up the taskmanager without needing to click something on the CTRL+ALT+DEL screen.

The reason turning off the computer didn’t work is that “shutdown” button is now “log off, then hibernate” aka hybrid shutdown aka “‘fast’ startup” (not the exit all processes and leave the kernel running and then hibernate that we were promised before windows 8 came out). Also your power button may be set to something other than shutdown.

I recommend:
hybrid shutdown aka “‘fast’ startup” = off
power button = shutdown (in all modes)

There are a few other defaults that need fixed, but they seem to vary based on manufacturer’s install settings, and which drivers were fully installed the first time windows boots (and if it is a laptop or not).

Additionally one of many keyboard shortcuts microsoft has broken since they stopped caring / went crazy (~2012) was ALT+S on the CTRL+ALT+DEL screen. It used to open the shutdown menu, now you have to tab their to get to it with a keyboard shortcut (broken as of windows 10).

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Ax Kramer, what type of computer or tablet do you use?
For me Ctrl+Esc in Windows 10 opens Start Menu.

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The computer is an HP Envy Laptop which is very nice but a heavy one.

The statement that the various vendors do not all implement Win10 or much else in the same way is so true. HP is not even consistent across their own product line.

HP’s documentation for the laptop refers repeatedly to the function keys F1 thru F12, but the keyboard has the function key row labeled with icons and symbols, but not F1, etc.

I can’t imagine how the average person without a lot of previous experience could even begin to get maximum use out of a modern computer. Perhaps that is part of the reason that simple tablets are taking over.

And thanks to NotReallyBob for your “key” contributions to this discussion.

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NotReallyBob, how do you turn fast startup off? Is it by disabling hibernate with powercfg -h off or is something more than that?

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ch100:
“For me Ctrl+Esc in Windows 10 opens Start Menu.”

For me Ctrl+Esc in Windows 8.1 also opens Start Menu.

ASUS laptop R554LA

JF

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I am wondering if the differences are in the firmware implementation. I use an older Dell XPS 15 with BIOS (not UEFI).
Joe and Ax, do you know if your machines are configured to boot from BIOS or from UEFI? Chances are that computer built for Windows 8 or later use UEFI while computers built for Windows 7 use BIOS.

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Nope, it’s an Advanced Option in the Power Plan screens. I dual-boot, so I have to turn off Fast Startup to safely share NTFS data partitions.

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Nailed it. Firmware or BIOS setups can affect the function of this key combo.

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