How to Remove Shutdown and Restart Buttons in Windows 10/8/7

Windows 10 lets you prevent a user from shutting down the machine by editing the group policy. For example, if your friend uses your computer and you went somewhere (and you still have some unsaved documents left), he shutdowns the pc without saving them. You will end up losing a considerable amount of data. (Trust me, I have lost one whole blog post and project code simultaneously). Here is how you can remove Shutdown and Restart Buttons in Windows 10/8/7

How to Remove Shutdown and Restart Buttons in Windows 10/8/7

• Type gpedit.msc in Run prompt (Win+ R) and press the Enter key.
• It will open the Group Policy Editor. Now there are two things in it, Computer Configuration and User Configuration.
• Click on User Configuration > Administrative Templates > Start Menu and Task Bar
• Now look for a policy with the name— Remove and prevent access to the Shut Down, Restart, Sleep, and Hibernate commands.
• To enable this policy, double click to open it and choose to Enable it.
• Exit the group policy editor.

If you have a Windows 10 Home version, you can follow this extensive guide to install Group Policy on it.

This particular setting removes the Shutdown and Restart option from the Start menu. It will also disable the Shut Down button on the Windows Security dialog box, which appears when you press CTRL+ALT+DEL. This setting prevents users from using the Windows user interface to shut down the system.

If you try to shut down by clicking on Start, the shutdown button will no longer be available. If someone tries to shut down using Task Manager, the option will not be available anymore if you open it. The only option in the Task Manager will be to switch users.

It is also useful if there is a Windows update pending, and a restart will initiate it. So nobody can accidentally or by trick make your computer busy for a long time.

How to remove the Shutdown or Restart Buttons for specific users or non-administrators?

Since the above setting will remove the shutdown option for everyone, including administrators, it’s best to choose specific users or groups.

• Open Group Policy Editor (gpedit.msc)
• Navigate to Computer Configuration > Windows Settings > Security Settings > Local Policies > User Rights Assignment > Shut Down the System.
• Double click on it > Select Users or Groups you want to block > Press Remove.
• Click on Apply/OK button, and that’s it.

When selecting, you can either chose USERS or Specific users. You can create a group of non-admin users and use that group in the above policy.

I hope these tips to remove the shutdown or restart button was easy to understand, and you could get it done successfully.