Windows Tools, Help & Guides

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Recently I have had the need to change the power-button on the start menu for some users to the option to “log-off” rather than “shutdown”.

Shutdown button

This is quite easy on a user by user basis. For each user you can follow the steps by right-clicking on the Taskbar, clicking on properties.

Taskbar Properties

A multi-tabbed dialogue will appear.

Menu Properties

Click on the “Start Menu” tab, there you will find a “Power-button Action” drop-down list. Select the appropriate option. Click “Apply” and “OK” and the button will have changed.

Log off button

The problem with this is, that you have to do these steps for each user. There is a way to do the same option for all users that log onto the PC, by using Group Policy. Click on the start orb and type “gpedit.msc” and press enter.

Run "GPEdit.msc"

Then goto Users Configuration -> Administrative Templates -> Start Menu and Taskbar

Edit Policies

Double click on “Start Menu and Taskbar”, click on the “Enabled” option, and choose the appropriate action.

Change Policy

Click on “Apply” and then “OK”. This will apply the change of the button for all users that log onto the PC. The next thing you might want to do is to remove the shutdown menu (when you hover on the arrow).

If there is a need to only give the users the option to the button you just configured, but I’ll do that in the next article.

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