[PC-Dad]

Wow, pretty good thread on such a simple thing as how to use the power button on a PC! The FIRST crew never ceases to amaze me.

To summarize, you all are pretty much in agreement that pressing and holding the power button to forcefully shutdown should be considered a last-resort measure. The typical type of problem associated with this action is data corruption or data loss, usually due to a disk write being in progress when the power is shutdown.

As for the ability to program the power button, I've always advised people to stay away from that and to use the GUI for shutdowns/hibernates/sleeps instead. The reason IT folks like me make broad statements like, "NEVER shutdown your PC that way" is because we usually don't know how much computer savvy the user in question has, so better to be safe than sorry. The bottom line is this: if you know the pitfalls, and you know the mechanics of what you are doing, then proceed at your own peril. If you're not sure what might happen, then you should stick to the safe route.