Remove 'Stand by' option from shutdown menu?

[Damaged1]

I am trying to upgrade a computer lab to XP Pro (Netware 5 environ).

I need to remove the 'stand by' option from the XP shutdown menu.

I am not referring to keeping the machine from going into standby on it's own...I already turned that off.

What I mean is I need to completely removing the user's ability to place the machine in standby manually by removal of the shutdown menu option, or any other means other than BIOS settings (which are not an option in this case).

I have went through the power settings, policy settings, registry, even tried using a program called PE Explorer to try decompiling a copy of explorer.exe, msgina.dll, and nwgina.dll to attempt to kill this option in the menu...to no avail. I also tried opening them each in ResHacker. I was either using the wrong programs or was unable to do anything with them due to lack of experience in this area...unknown which.

Surely there must be others out there who want to remove the users ability to put the machine on stand by (this is an undergrad lab...can you imagine having to manually check 80+ machines throughout the day to make sure that blank screen on all the machines is because the system is off or monitor sleeping instead of put in 'stand by' mode?)

I have tried the usual haunts, boards, groups, and Google searches,and I have seen this question asked a few times by others in similar situations, but have yet to see a reply other that "I would think you should be able to do that in the power managemant settings". Well, ya can't. It's just not there.

If I could replace the internal command called by pressing 'Start - Shut Down' (in msgina.dll?) with the one called by pressing "Ctrl-Alt-Del - shutdown' (which in my case is part of the nwgina.dll I believe), that would be great...I just do not know how to do that.

Anyone have any ideas here?

Thanks in advance

 

[linney]

For your consideration, think about this idea.


You can use the Group Policy editor (Gpedit.msc) under the following location to configure Start menu features:
User Configuration \ Administrative Templates \ Start Menu and Taskbar


Policy: Disable and remove the Turn Off Computer button.
Description: Removes the "Turn Off Computer" button from the Start Menu and prevents shutting down Windows using the standard shutdown user interface.


That should remove the access to the Stand By button via the Start Button. You will have to replace Shutdown and Restart options via shortcuts to Shutdown.exe in the System32 folder. These shortcuts (renamed appropriately) could be placed on the Desktop (or anywhere). One will indicate Shutdown (X:\WINDOWS\system32\shutdown.exe /s in target box of shortcut properties). The other will indicate Restart (X:\WINDOWS\system32\shutdown.exe /r in target box of shortcut properties).

The switches to Shutdown.exe are available and explained by typing shutdown at a CMD prompt. (You will notice that the "c" switch offers you the ability to display your message in the new Shutdown/Restart box).

If you are worried about other access to the Stand By option you may also want to disable the Task Manager in Group Policy.

Please let us know when and how you solve this problem.

 

[linney]

What I was mentioning above might only be achievable via a registry hack because of problems in Group Policy with any shortcuts functioning after disabling Shutdown. In that case the change would be made to this key -

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer

The registry entries are DWORD values. Registry Value: "NoClose". A value of 1 is enabled, and a value of 0 is disabled.


You could also look at this (tsshutdn) from a prompt and see if anything could be done with that.

Interestingly in Home under "To manually put your computer on standby" in the Help and Support, it mentions this -

"You can also put your computer on standby by clicking Start, clicking Turn Off Computer, and then clicking Stand By. If your computer is set up to hibernate, the Stand By option is replaced by the Hibernate option in the Turn Off Computer dialog box."

However that particular paragraph is ommitted from Pro's Help and Support article.

Another thing to look at -

324347 - How to Use Powercfg.exe in Windows Server 2003

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;324347&FR=1&PA=1&SD=HSCH

Why do I feel that the only way you will achieve your goal is a complete rewrite of Windows XP. I wish you success.

 

[Damaged1]

Thanks for the reply!

I have also considered disabling shutdown, or even stripping 'User' rights to it, but found it won't shutdown at all from that account then. the only other 'solution' I can find or come up with is to un-install ACPI...but that is not an option at all given the drawbacks of doing so.

How about this....does anyone know where to look to get the command that is called when the (Start - Shut Down) button is pressed? Also, what program is best suited for editing this if it can be done? Reason I ask, is if I can find that command, and the command that is called (in nwgina.dll I suspect) by a SAS event (Ctrl-Alt-Del) then 'shutdown...' (which uses the Novell Shutdown menu), I could then take the command called by Novell, and overwrite the command called by the 'Start - Shut Down' button, and all is well in the world. Either that, or some external script I could call (as a logoff script?) to do this?

why, oh why, didn't they simply give us an option in policy or the registry for this????