Changing the Vista Power Button to log off

[Azaran]

Hi all, hopping some Vista guru can help me out. The school I work at has just moved to Vista and those of us that maintain the lab have begun to experience a new kind of headache. We're trying to see if we can change the behavior of the start menu power button.

I know how to change it to turn off the computer, what I'm wondering is if there some sort of registry tweak that would change it to log the user off?

Vista by default has it set to send the computer in to sleep mode. Well most of our students and a good amount of our instructors don't seem to realize this isn't how they're supposed to log off. I assume they see the computer seem to turn off and think its rebooting or something. Since we maintain about 120 computer on our floor, its starting to quickly drive us to drink.

Can anyone help out?

~A

 

[RebateMonger]

If nothing else, you can tell Vista to "Do Nothing" when the power button and the sleep button are pressed.

 

[SilentRunning]

oops

EDIT

run gpedit.msc as an admin

Local Computer Policy->User Configuration->Administrative Tools->Start Menu and Taskbar->Remove adn prevent access to the Shut Down, Restart, Sleep and Hibernate commands ->Enable

This leaves them with switch user, logoff, and lock


If you can live with the Classic Start Menu you can customize it to "Display Log Off"


If you don't want the users to be able switch from the classic start menu

run gpedit.msc as an admin

Local Computer Policy->User Configuration->Administrative Tools->Start Menu and Taskbar->Force Classic Start Menu->Enable

You will have to run gpedit to change back to the Vista start menu if you do this.

 

[rgallant]

Originally posted by: Azaran
Hi all, hopping some Vista guru can help me out. The school I work at has just moved to Vista and those of us that maintain the lab have begun to experience a new kind of headache. We're trying to see if we can change the behavior of the start menu power button.

I know how to change it to turn off the computer, what I'm wondering is if there some sort of registry tweak that would change it to log the user off?

Vista by default has it set to send the computer in to sleep mode. Well most of our students and a good amount of our instructors don't seem to realize this isn't how they're supposed to log off. I assume they see the computer seem to turn off and think its rebooting or something. Since we maintain about 120 computer on our floor, its starting to quickly drive us to drink.

Can anyone help out?

~A

http://www.howtogeek.com/howto...cons-in-windows-vista/

-build your own icons on the desktop ,I never use the start menu icons. but if you really need to change the start menu icons , do a seach on the vista forums or google it's there.
also--

placed on the desktop.

Right-click on the Desktop and make a new shortcut by selecting New > Shortcut.

Then in the Type the location of the item: box, enter ?shutdown.exe -s -t 00?, where ?00? is the delay in seconds. (You can increase it.) You will then be asked to select a name (call it ?Shutdown?, for example).

After creating the shortcut, you can change the icon assigned to it by rightclicking on the shortcut and selecting Properties. The window that comes up next has a ?Change Icon? option, which is easy to use.

For a Restart shortcut, use ?shutdown.exe -r -t 00?. Replacing -r by -l gives the code for logging off: ?shutdown.exe -l -t 00?.

Fast user switching is also possible; the code for that is ?Rundll32.exe User32.dll, LockWorkStation?. Similarly one can also make a shortcut for Standby/Hibernation. If Hibernation is enabled, the computer will hibernate, else it will go into Standby.
For this, use ?%windir%\system32\ rundll32.exe PowrProf.dll, SetSuspendState?.

 

[Azaran]

Fantastic, thanks for the ideas everyone. Sadly the shortcut idea and the classic start menu aren't really options. The gpedit idea tho may have a strong possibility of working, I"ll play with it at work tomorrow and see what comes of it.

 

[Azaran]

Edited for repeated entry

 

[SilentRunning]

Originally posted by: Azaran
Fantastic, thanks for the ideas everyone. Sadly the shortcut idea and the classic start menu aren't really options. The gpedit idea tho may have a strong possibility of working, I"ll play with it at work tomorrow and see what comes of it.

Well, if the classic menu is out of the question then you also have the option disabling the lock button (takes away the easy temptation to click.) So if you don't need the ability to lock the computer then the setting in gpedit is:

Local Computer Policy->User Configuration->Administrative Tools->System->Ctrl+Alt+Del Options->Remove Lock Computer->Enable

Then when they click the lock button nothing will happen.

 

[43st]

It's also buried in the advanced power options.

 

[Azaran]

Heres a thought, would it be possible to create a custom desktop with just a giant button on it that says Log off? The main problem we're facing is just students and teachers not paying attention and locking/sleeping the computer instead of logging out.

 

[lxskllr]

How about a ginormous desktop shortcut icon with this? %SystemRoot%\System32\shutdown.exe -l

Edit:
I reread the topic, and you said you didn't want an icon :^/ I think a desktop background would be easy to do, but I don't know how.

Edit2:

Screenie showing ginormous icons

 

[SilentRunning]

Originally posted by: Azaran
Heres a thought, would it be possible to create a custom desktop with just a giant button on it that says Log off? The main problem we're facing is just students and teachers not paying attention and locking/sleeping the computer instead of logging out.

So do you want a shortcut on the desktop or not?

If you want a shortcut on the desktop just do as the others have said.

Right click on desktop->New->Shortcut

For location of file type -> shutdown.exe -l

next

For name of shortcut -> LOG OFF

Finish

Then right click on the new shortcut->Properties->Change Icon

Select the Icon that looks like a square red power button (there is a large on and a small one).

 

[Azaran]

The problem with shortcuts is the user might miss them, delete them, move them etc.. plus vista has a habit of eating icons at times (don't know how many times I've re-enabled the recycle bin at home). However a desktop background is something we can manage directly through policy's. The problem with combating lazy and or inattentive users is making it glaringly obvious while at the same time making sure they don't screw up the system.