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DADDY BOB'S COMPUTER Q & A
May 17, 2009
Q.
I'm using Vista and would like to change the
Start Menu's Power button to turn off the
computer instead of putting it to sleep. Can
this be done?
A.
Yes, but the setting that changes this is
buried pretty deep in the menu hierarchy.
BTW, this feature is not available in
Windows XP, and the process is so much
simpler in Windows 7, so this is peculiar to
Vista.
When
Vista is installed, the default setting for
this action is "sleep". When you click on
the Start orb, this is displayed.
If you place the cursor over the button just
below the word Run, you get this rather long
prompt, "Keeps your session in memory and
puts the computer in a low profile state so
that you can quickly resume working". If
you click on the button, the computer goes
into sleep mode.
It is possible to click on the little right
arrow to get this menu that allows several
options, including shutting down the
computer.
However,
what we want to do here is change the action
of the sleep button and here's how to make
this change.
Click the
Start orb, open the Control Panel and click
on the Power Options icon. In the left pane
of the window that opens, click on "Change
when the computer sleeps" then on "Change
advanced power options". Scroll down and
click the little + in front of "Power
buttons and lid". Now, click on the little +
in front of "Start menu power button".
Click on
the word Sleep, and then the scroll down
arrow and you are given two choices, Sleep
and Shut down as shown.
Choose
Shut down, and click OK. When this change
has been made, clicking the Start orb will
now display this:
Notice
the button below the word Run has changed,
and when the cursor is placed over it, the
prompt reads, "Closes all open programs,
shuts down Windows, and then turns off your
computer." Clicking on this button
does just that.
After
changing this default action from Sleep to
shut down, shutting down a computer becomes
as simple as closing all open windows and
pressing ALT+F4 then Enter.
While you
are in the Power Options dialog, you may
want to look around to see what else you can
change. |
