If you can switch it on from the keyboard, can't you switch it off the same way? My keyboard has a button that let's me switch the PC off (but not one that switches it on), but I find the button on the computer itself more convenient.

I guess they've added the button to the Start Screen due to customer demand. The fact is some maybe most people use their Windows PC in exactly the same way they always did regardless of version, and are unwilling to change.

I guess you're right. That's what I'm doing.

No power buttons on my keyboard, the mobo simply does an ACPI power on when any keyboard press is detected. I have no difficulty at the moment shutting down via charm > settings > power, but the added option may save me a click.

My old keyboard had a power button. It was handy.

Never tried it, but if you power off via the button too much, won't that eventually trash Windows? All the way back to W95 we've been told that it's harmful not to power down via the menus. The screens when you switch on again have become increasingly less scary (my W7 laptop gives me a black screen with various nice options) but I seem to remember a BSOD way back if you dared to touch the power button to switch off (W98?)

In reply to a post by Pipexer:

I have no difficulty at the moment shutting down via charm > settings > power,

I always find trying to access charms to be a bit hit/miss!

I have to vaguely roam the cursor somewhere in the top r/h corner &, if I'm lucky, the so-called charms may pop up - certainly it is not sufficiently reliable to consider using it as a proper facility!

No. That was true in the days of 95, but the power button on a modern computer doesn't just break the power supply. It sends a shutdown signal to the OS- exactly the same as selecting "Shutdown" from a menu.

Ironic that to install it on a machine with 1gb Ram and a 16gb HDD (older UMPC's and the like) you have to first install the original version that won't install on a machine with those specifications!
I'd be interested when they release a standalone version.

As the update hasn't been officially released, it's hardly ironic. TBH, I would have thought that people with those specifications would want to run the 32-bit version anyway.