Question

I want to know which is the best practice when a piece of software needs to restart, shutdown, logoff or hibernate Windows:

1. Use ExitWindowsEx API
2. Use Shutdown command and its parameters

What is the advantages and disadvantages of each approach?

Thanks

Answer 1

I always prefer calling the API (ExitWindowsEx, InitiateSystemShutdown).

Pro API

• GetLastError can be used to diagnose errors
• You get access to the full API, not just the things exposed by a utility
• You don’t have to worry about filesystem redirection and whether the tool exists in the home versions of Windows
• The documented interface stays the same, command line switches could change or be different in a different language

Pro external tool

• Makes some difficult tasks easy to perform (Some things require undocumented API’s)
• Few bugs, and if there are bugs they are not yours 😉