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DADDY BOB'S COMPUTER Q & A
June 14, 2009
Q.
On the Welcome screen there is an option to
"Turn off computer". Other users on the
computer have used this to turn off the
computer while I was still signed on and
doing work thus causing me to lose the work.
Can I disable this ability to turn off the
computer while I am still signed on?
A.
Yes and depending on the version of XP you
are running it can be very easy or a little
more complicated. XP Professional includes
the Group Policy editor which can be used to
disable this choice for all but
administrators. The same thing is possible
in XP Home, but since it doesn't include the
Group Police editor, it has to be done with
a manual modification to the registry.
If this
modification is made, the "Turn off
computer" option will not be available
unless the current user is logged on as an
administrator. So, assuming that the
"others" you mentioned on the computer have
limited user privileges, this should work to
solve the problem mentioned.
For XP
Pro, here are the steps to turn off this
choice. Open the Control Panel, and select
Performance and Maintenance. Click on
Administrator tools, then double click on
Local Security Policy. Note that if you do
not have this option, then you are running
XP Home, not Pro.
Expand
Local Policies by clicking on the little
plus sign next to it and then click on
Security Options. In the right pane, scroll
down to "Shutdown: Allow system to be shut
down without having to log on" and double
click on it. Click the box in front of
Disable then click OK. That's it. The choice
to "Turn off computer" will not display on
the Welcome screen unless an administrator
is logged on.
For XP
Home, this same change can be done by making
a modification to the registry. For those
who are not comfortable manually editing the
registry, I have written a small program
that will safely make the change for you. It
is called "shutdownwithlogon.exe" and can be
downloaded from the Downloads section of
this site or by clicking
HERE.
For those
brave enough to manually edit the registry,
here is the key you need to change;
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\Policies\System.
In the right column is the entry
shutdownwithoutlogon. If its DWORD value is
set to 1 the default, the phrase "Turn off
computer" will be displayed on the Welcome
screen. If it is set to 0 the phrase, "Turn
off computer" will not be displayed.
Although
this same registry key exists in Windows
Vista and Windows 7, it doesn't have the
same effect as in XP because the Welcome
screens are different and the "Turn off
computer" phrase is not used. |
