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Change the Default Action of the Power Button on the Windows Vista Start Menu

Written by Gregory Scot Collins
Friday, 8 December 2006, 5:30 AM
This article has been tested to work with the following products and versions. No guarantee of compatibility, with or without modification, is offered for products or versions other than those listed.
Similar to Windows XP, a power button is present on the Start menu in Windows Vista, only its action is customizable. By default the power button is set to place your computer into Sleep. Sleep is a power-saving state with extremely little power consumption. It retains your open applications and documents and allows you to resume your work within seconds. Resuming from Sleep does not require any boot time because it doesn't shut down your computer.
Note: Before disconnecting a non-battery-backed computer from its power source, be sure to do a complete shut down. If you disconnect it during the Sleep state, you will lose your unsaved data.

Change the default power options

Because some older computers might not handle the Sleep state gracefully (for example, I have a laptop that just restarts instead of going to sleep) you might want to change the default action for the power button on the Start menu and other power events. In this article we will discuss changing the default action of the power button on the Start menu, but you can apply these steps to modify the default action for other events, such as closing the lid of your notebook computer.
  1. Open Power Options in the Control Panel.
  2. On the Select A Power Plan page, click Change Plan Settings under your selected power plan.
  3. Click Change Advanced Power Settings.
  4. Expand Power Buttons And Lid, and then expand Start Menu Power Button.
  5. Select On Battery or Plugged In, and then choose Sleep, Hibernate, or Shut Down, as shown in Screenshot 1.
  6. Click OK.
Screenshot 2 shows the Start menu button when Sleep (default action) or Hibernate is selected. Screenshot 3 shows the Start menu button when Shut Down is selected.

Locate the other Start menu actions

In case you were wondering what happened to your other actions, such as Restart, Switch User and Log Off (available in Windows XP when you click Turn Off Computer or Log Off on the Start menu), these have been moved to the Lock button menu, as shown in Screenshot 4:
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List of Figures
Screenshot 1 - Selecting a new power state.
Screenshot 2 - The power button as it appears when Sleep or Hibernate is selected.
Screenshot 3 - The power button as it appears when Shut Down is selected.
Screenshot 4 - Other actions are present on the Lock button menu.
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