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  • Fully agree, of course. Further information, for the OP - When Windows goes through a "normal" shutdown, it sends a termination message to each running application, to allow that application to shut down safely. It's the applications that receive that message that display the "Unsaved Changes" dialogs when needed. That's really outside the control of Windows, as it has no way of knowing which applications might need to stop writing to disk to avoid corruption vs. which are just being "nice" and asking whether you want to not lose your work ;-). Commented Mar 7, 2023 at 13:49
  • I'm curious though, about the Nirsoft initshutdown --force mentioned in the question. It seems to me that this would have the same potential risk of filesystem and/or file corruption that a hard-power-down would. But I can't find any information on that risk. Commented Mar 7, 2023 at 13:53
  • Thanks for sharing, but anybody still interested in answering without judging: I want a (brief) press of the power-button to shut down Windows immediately.
    – Pingui
    Commented Mar 7, 2023 at 14:29
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    That can damage your filesystem which is why I say you should not do this. Damage will happen after a few such presses.
    – anon
    Commented Mar 7, 2023 at 14:31
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    @NotTheDr01ds: initshutdown --force forces applications to close without saving unsaved work, but Windows itself still shuts down normally afterwards so you should not end up with filesystem corruption. You only lose unsaved data, if there was any. It's most probably doing the same as shutdown /s /f.
    – Nassbirne
    Commented Mar 7, 2023 at 15:56