How to disable shutdown option in Windows 7
This article explains how to disable and enable the Windows shutdown, hibernate, restart options in Windows 7 and Windows Vista by using Windows registry.
How to prevent shutdown in Windows 7
Windows operating system can be configured to prevent some of the activities so that in a multi user environment user cannot perform some actions. Windows administrator is the power user of the system who can configure the system to restrict the user access.
In Windows 7 operating system you can restrict a user to shutdown the system. You can easily remove the options so that the user shutdown the system. You can just hide the Shutdown button so that the user cannot shutdown or restart the system, but he can use the shutdown command to restart or shutdown the system.
In order to just disable the Shutdown button from Windows Vista or Windows 7 you can do it by modifying the registry. Open the registry by clicking the Windows start button and type regedit in the Windows search box and select the registry to open the registry. You can also open the registry by holding the Windows Key + R to open the Windows run prompt and type regedit and hit enter button to open Windows registry.
Once the Windows registry is opened now click and expand HKEY_CURRENT_USERS and then expand Software folder and then expand Microsoft and then expand Windows and open CurrentVersion and expandPolices and finally open Explorer and in Right hand side right click the mouse button and click new DWORD with NoClose as name and then click ok to create a new DWORD. Now double click the DWORD and change the value to 1 instead of 0. Registry task bar will show the current registry key value (Check the below screenshot).
Below is the location of the Windows registry key to disable and enable the Windows Shutdown, Restart and Hibernate.
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion \Policies\Explorer
Now close all the programs and log off the system and login to the system will disable Shutdown, Restart, Hibernate options. In order to shutdown the system now you can go to command prompt and type shutdown /s will shutdown the computer in one minute.
In order to bring back the Shutdown, Restart and Hibernate options change the value again back to 0 in the registry by modifiying DWORD NoClose and then log off the system and then again login to the system will enable the Windows Shutdown, Restart and Hibernate.
I don't seem to have the Explorer in my Policies folder. I only seem have System. Is it hidden? Do I have to create one? What does it mean if I don't have it? How to I get it back? Thanks in advance.