[Al Skierkiewicz]

I agree with Don above...only as a last resort when you are sure there is no coming back. Unfortunately, there are frequently times when you have asked Windows to do too much in addition to it's own housekeeping. It may looked locked but in reality it is too busy doing what it needs to do to even listen to you. Pressing the keyboard or moving the mouse appears to do nothing but in reality the computer is storing that input(s) until it can service them. On older machines (In the ancient past circa 1990) you would never press the power button to shut down unless you had control of the system. A power down in the days before protected drives meant a head crash.