Windows 7, by default allow users to shutdown computer without having logged into user account. A shutdown button is always appearing on bottom-right corner of the logon screen. We can hide this button by tweaking Windows 7 Local Security Policies.
Why Should You Hide This?
This button will come in to play on public computers or if you’re sharing your PC with someone else. This may not important to you if you don’t have a password setup for your user account. The reason I’m telling this is that if you don’t have a password protected user account, the whole purpose of locking your PC is pointless. Any stranger can login to your PC.
Let’s say you’re in middle of some important work. And you have to go away from your keyboard for few minutes. And you don’t want to shutdown your PC. At this situation, you can lock you PC so no one login to your PC without entering password. But all your tasks are still running in background. This is not same as Sleep Mode, which will stop all background processes. If you were in middle of video conversion, it continues to run on background. And it may have completed by the time you come back. And yes, you don’t have to sit behind your PC for hours to complete a video conversion or even a large file download. You can start it and go away and engaged with something else. When you come back, your task is probably completed and you don’t feel the risk of someone logged into your account.
So when your PC is on lock mode, someone who has access to it can still shut it down using shutdown button at the logon screen. It’ll not only stop your task, but destroy your current progress on it. And when you come back, you’ll have to start it over again. So it’s essential to hide this button. It can save you lots of time.
How to Hide it?
We have to change some settings in Local Security Policies to achieve this, just like we did on Adding Welcome Message to Windows 7. Go to your control panel and change ‘View by’ to large icons. Now click ‘Administrative Tools’. Then double click ‘Local Security Policy’ on pop up window.
Another new window will open. Double click “ËœLocal Policy’ on left sidebar to view sub options. Then click ‘Security Options’ under local policy. List of policies will be displayed on right window. Scroll down and double click ‘Shutdown: Allow system to be shutdown without having to log on’. Pop up window will open. Tick disable and click ‘Apply’ followed by ‘OK’.
Now whenever you lock your computer, you won’t see shutdown button at the logon screen. You must be logged in to a user account in order to shutdown your computer.
