How to remove shutdown option in start menu of Windows 10

Question

I have a PC that should always be on. I recently upgraded to Windows 10 from Windows 7. In Windows 7 I changed the default action of the power button in the start menu to log off from my machine so that I could not accidentally shut it off. However in Windows 10 the start menu changed and this doesn't appear to be possible anymore?

I wonder how the shutdown option can be removed from the start menu. I cannot find any information about it but I expect this to be possible.

Solution 1

I found this to work. This is more of a reply so people searching google can find this answer.

open regedit and go to: Computer\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\PolicyManager\default\Start\HideShutDown

open the key that says value and change it to 1. Your Shutdown option is now removed for everyone, but all other options are still there. This includes the sign on screen, and alt+ctrl+del screen.

Change it to 0 to bring it back.

This just removes the menu options, wont prevent shutdowns from users with the policy to issue the shutdown command via a command or separate program.

To remove from an already configured profile, change the associated keys in: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\PolicyManager\current\device\Start

Solution 2

To remove the Shut Down, Restart, Sleep, and Hibernate commands from the Start menu and from the screen that is displayed after pressing Ctrl+Alt+Delete:

1. Open the Local Group Policy Editor (run gpedit in the Command prompt).
2. Go to: User Configuration > Administrative Templates > Start Menu and Taskbar
3. Set "Remove and prevent access to the Shut Down, Restart, Sleep, and Hibernate commands" to Enabled

It does not prevent users from:

• running other programs that perform these functions. For example in the Command prompt they can run: shutdown /s to shutdown the computer or shutdown /r to restart the computer.
• log off from Windows and then shutdown or restart the computer.

The Group Policy Editor is available only in Pro, Enterprise and Education editions of Windows 10, and not in Windows 10 Home.

More info is given on these pages:

• https://www.thewindowsclub.com/remove-shutdown-power-button-login-start-menu
• https://www.online-tech-tips.com/computer-tips/prevent-shutdown-of-windows/

The answer is based on Paweł Iwaneczko's answer, which unfortunately didn't work for me.

Solution 3

Very good answer for this question is here and here.

Open the Local Group Policy Editor (Win+R and gpedit.msc)

Go to:

Computer Configuration->Windows Settings->Security Settings->Local Policies->User Rights Assingment->Shut down the system

And finally add/remove specific group of users to allow/prevent them to shutdown the system.

Hope it'll help.

Solution 4

It appears that the solution that Urbanchaos listed

Computer\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\PolicyManager\default\Start\HideShutDown   value   1

only works for Windows 10 1809 and later. For 1803 I have had to edit a similar value.

Computer\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\PolicyManager\current\device\Start   HideShutdown   1

I honestly have no idea why this does not work but I'm continuing to look into it.

View more solutions

Comments

[Dave]

You can't disable the PC being turned off. Even if you do this, you could probably run a command like shutdown -s

[Akshay Pethani]

I dont know the actual solution but one idea that if possible that any script you can run automaticaly exactly before shutdown the computer than it is poosible to run batch script with command 'shutdown /a' by this you can controll your pc turn off

[Akshay Pethani]

I just tried out my solution. but it do not work on hard shutdown it only work on timed shut down.

[Dupree3]

you can still change what the power button does in windows 10, search for power options, it is in there.

[Ron Deijkers]

Thanks for the information. Well I do think it is possible to disable it all together but actually what I mean is to remove that option only so that with shutdown it is still possible. And for the power options: I think in the power options you can only set what the hardware power button does. The options of the Power item (select list of Sleep, Shut Down, Restart) cannot be configured there.

[Red15]

This is definitely possible: the Nividia GeForce driver updating process does this i.imgur.com/wFs956q.png

[Ron Deijkers]

haha... I should install the latest beta driver then :-)

[skan]

you can rename the file shutdown.exe to any other name.

[Ramhound]

While this link may answer the question, it is better to include the essential parts of the answer here and provide the link for reference. Link-only answers can become invalid if the linked page changes. It would be nice if the information to implement your solution was contained within your answer

[Gaurang]

This has the added benefit of going into effect immediately (Win 10 Pro)

[Russell G]

Note that this seems to remove all power options, not just Shutdown. After doing this on a Windows 10 Pro PC with version 21H1 (and then rebooting), clicking the power button on the start menu shows the message, "There are currently no power options available", even though there were options for Sleep, Shutdown, and Restart before the change.