Change Start Menu power button

Policy ID: PowerButtonAction
Scope: User Configuration
Supported on: Windows Server 2008 R2 and Windows 7
Source: Administrative Templates (.admx) for Windows 11 2026 Update (26H2) (version 1.0)
Category: Start Menu and Taskbar

Description

Set the default action of the power button on the Start menu.

If you enable this setting, the Start Menu will set the power button to the chosen action, and not let the user change this action.

If you set the button to either Sleep or Hibernate, and that state is not supported on a computer, then the button will fall back to Shut Down.

If you disable or do not configure this setting, the Start Menu power button will be set to Shut Down by default, and the user can change this setting to another action.

Options

Choose one of the following actions
- Shut Down
- Sleep
- Log off
- Lock
- Restart
- Switch User
- Hibernate

Registry

UserHKEY_CURRENT_USER

HKCU\Software\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\Explorer View registry values

PowerButtonActionREG_DWORD

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