To prevent shutdown, you can remove the Windows 10 shutdown option. Here’re the steps to remove the shutdown button from the Start menu and the WinX menu.
To shutdown Windows, you can either use the shutdown button in the Start menu or in the WinX menu. A vast majority of Windows users use the Start menu’s shutdown button to turn off the computer. Though the shutdown button is hidden behind a menu in the Start menu, it still is pretty easy to click the shutdown button accidentally. That being said, if you are a system administrator, you might want to restrict users from shutting down Windows. There may be any number of reasons like the need for a program to run without shutdown, specific shutdown requirements, etc.
No matter the use case, the easiest way to prevent Windows shutdown is to remove the shutdown button from the Start menu, WinX menu, Ctrl Alt Del menu, and Alt + F4 menu.
In this quick and simple step-by-step guide, let me show you the steps to disable the shutdown button from the start menu.
Jump to:
- How to remove shutdown button from Start menu GPO
- How to remove shutdown button from Start menu Registry
How to remove shutdown button from Start menu GPO
The group policy editor in Windows has a dedicated GPO to remove the shutdown button from the Start menu. Here are the steps you should follow.
- Press the Windows key to open the Start menu.
- Type “Edit Group Policy” and press “Enter“.
- After opening the group policy editor, go to the below folder. This is where the start button gpo is located.
User Configuration → Administrative Templates → Start Menu and Taskbar - Now, open the “Remove and prevent access to the Shut Down, Restart, Sleep, and Hibernate commands” policy by double-clicking on it.
- Once the policy properties are opened, select the “Enabled” option.
- Click “Apply“.
- Click “Ok“.
- Close the group policy editor.
- Open Command Prompt as admin.
- Execute the “gpupdate /force” command to apply the GPO.
- Close the Command Prompt window.
That is all. Once the policy is applied, you will no longer see the shutdown option in the Start menu, WinX menu, Ctrl Alt Del menu, or in the Alt + F4 menu.
Note: If you can still see the shutdown button, restart the system. Restarting the system will force the policy changes to be applied.
Restart Shutdown Button
To restore the shutdown button, all you have to do is select “Not configured” in the policy properties window and apply the GPO. Once you do that, the shutdown button in the Start menu and other places will be restored.
How to remove shutdown button from Start menu Registry
When the group policy is not available, you can remove the shutdown button from the registry. Here’s how.
- Open Run window with “Win + R” keyboard shortcut.
- Type “regedit” in the blank field and click “Ok”.
- After opening the registry editor, copy the below registry path.
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies - Paste it in the address bar and press Enter.
- Right-click on the “Policies” folder.
- Select “New → Key“.
- Name the new folder as “Explorer“.
-
- Right-click on the “Explorer” folder.
- Select “New → Dword (32-bit) Value”.
- Name the new dword value as “NoClose“.
- Double-click on the value you just created.
- Type “1” in the Value Data field.
- Click “Ok“.
- Close the registry editor.
- Restart Windows.
That is all. As soon as you restart the system, you will no longer see the shutdown option in the Start menu, WinX menu, Ctrl Alt Del menu, or in the Alt + F4 menu.
Restart Shutdown Button
To restore the shutdown button, delete the “NoClose” registry key located in “HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer” folder. Alternatively, you can also set “NoClose” value data to “0”.
—
That is all. I hope that helps. If you are stuck or need some help, comment below and I will try to help as much as possible. If you like this article, check out how to auto close programs when shutting down Windows.
