Mac OS X has a nifty shortcut - Ctrl+Eject - for shutting down your computer. On older Apple keyboards, these keys are on opposite diagonal corners of the keyboard, and at the end of the day you can simply hit the two corners of the keyboard then Return to switch off your computer. However, with the new Apple Aluminium Keyboard, the eject key in in the middle of the top row of keys - hardly as convenient! Instead, F19 takes the top right spot.
ProShutdown is a free program that restores the “opposite corners” shortcut by listening for Ctrl+F19, and displaying a shut down dialog when these are pressed. It displays a small “F19” icon in the menu bar to remind you that this shortcut is available. Want it gone? Press Ctrl+F18 to hide (or bring back) the icon.
- Press Ctrl+F19 to bring up the "Are you sure you want to shut down?" dialog.
- Press Ctrl+Option+Cmd+F19 to shut down instantly.
- Press Ctrl+F18 to toggle ProShutdown's menu bar icon.
- Additional shortcuts for instant restart, sleep and display sleep.
- Customizable keyboard shortcuts for other keyboards.
Installation and Use
To install ProShutdown, download the ProShutdown disc image and copy the ProShutdown application within to a sensible place on your hard drive - we recommend the Utilities folder inside your Application folder.
Once this is done, eject the disc image and launch the ProShutdown application from your hard drive - an “F19” icon will appear in your menu bar, and installation is complete.
To shutdown, restart or sleep your machine, press Ctrl+F19 on your keyboard and ProShutdown will display a dialog box enabling you choose an action. To hide or show the menu bar icon, press Ctrl+F18.
You can customise ProShutdown by choosing “Preferences…” from the ProShutdown menu. Within the preferences window you can choose to have ProShutdown launch automatically when you log in to your computer, automatically check for updates and define any custom shortcuts you’d like to use.