Thread: shutting down windows

Whenever you shut down Windows, that message comes up that says, "It is now safe to shut off your computer."

That message is simply a BMP file (actually a .sys file, but in BMP format, you can open it using Paint).

However, I am wondering how this message gets up there and stays up there if Windows is shut down. When the message comes up that says, "Please wait while Windows shuts down", that message is shutting off power to the hard drive, and closing stuff down.

So how would that "It is now safe to shut off your computer" message stay on the screen. I assume it is one of the last things they do before the end of the main() function in Windows...and therefore, shortly after they display the message, the end of the main function comes. When the main function ends, all memory allocated by that program is cleared, therefore shouldnt the video memory be cleared and the screen become black?

And Windows couldnt still be running while that message is up, because then when you pressed the power off button on your computer, that would be doing a hard shut down and it would not reach the end of the main function in Windows.

So exactly how does that message stay up there, AFTER Windows shuts down?


On a totally unrelated note: I heard somewhere that a bird egg is just one cell large. Is that true?

And Windows couldnt still be running while that message is up, because then when you pressed the power off button on your computer, that would be doing a hard shut down and it would not reach the end of the main function in Windows.

So? It doesn't need to reach the end of main. Rebooting clears the memory for it.

> I heard somewhere that a bird egg is just one cell large. Is that true?

Sure is - ostriches have the largest, making an ostrich egg the largest single cell out there.

>>> I heard somewhere that a bird egg is just one cell large. Is that true?

Like all true fertilized eggs, they start out as a single cell, however they begin dividing. So yes, it is true to say that a birds egg is a single cell initially, or a frogs egg, or a human egg.