Hi I'm also new here, but I on win7 I know you can go into energy setting and change what the computer does when you close the lid. things like sleep, hibernate, shut down, and (prolly what you're looking for) have it do nothing. that way you could power it up close the lid and then just use your external monitor to got to start shut down when you're done. I'm not sure what OS your using, but it may have a similar option. Good luck.