SHUTDOWN.EXE shortcut won't work. 1

[spool]

Hello all,
here is a good one. I set up SHUTDOWN.EXE as a shortcut on the desktop. It works fine but when you make the same shortcut on another users desktop it won't work if the user is set up as limited user. It only works if the user has Administrator rights.

I went into the SHUTDOWN.EXE properties and under security I gave all users permission to access the .EXE not full control, but all that I think should work. It still won't execute. I don't think making them Admin with limited rights would be any different then what I did, mentioned above.

I don't want users of this computer to have administrator rights. I checked on Google and everything suggested I tried already. No mention of this shortcut not working on user desktops.

I don't want to use a 3rd party utility. There is a tweak somewhere.

Any ideas would be helpful.

Thanks,
spool

 

[bcastner]

Start, Run, gpedit.msc

Computer Configuration
Windows Settings
Local Polcies
User Rights Assignments
Shut Down the System

See if the rights are perhaps too restrictive on this policy object.

 

[spool]

Update: Still can't get Shutdown.exe shortcut on Users Desktop to work. I ran, gpedit.msc and made a new Group for users accounts and made them Administrators still does not work.

Thanks,bcastner. I can't find write ups on any problems Users Accounts having shutting down using Shutdown.exe Shortcut on there desktop.


spool

 

[bcastner]

Curious,

If you write a file with notepad, shutitdown.cmd with only a line:

SHUTDOWN -f -s


and run it from the desktop, does it shut down?

 

[spool]

bcastner,

That .cmd you gave me when clicked on the desktop a CMD prompt window comes up and the cmd keeps scrolling in a loop. You have to stop it by closing the window. I changed it to a .bat same thing happens.

This SHUTDOWN.exe works fine as long as every user is an administrator on there account/profile.

Every day you fine a nice little .exe and then find out it won't work in all situations. FYI, this .exe Powers down an XP computer but won't Power down a Win 2000 computer. Go figure.

I'm here at a dead end. Thanks, if you or anyone else have any more suggestions I'm open to try them out.

spool

 

[spool]

bcastner,

I just tried three 3rd party Shutdown utilities and they don't shut down the computer from the users desktop. These utilities only work from the administrator desktop or the user must have administrator rights for it to work from their desk top, just like SHUTDOWN.exe.

If the computer has two or three user accounts set up with their own Desktops why do they all have to be Administrators with full access????.

I think no one knows of this problem because you are the only one that had any suggestions so far.

This is a nice utility, it saves a couple of steps shutting down the computer having this shortcut on the desktop.

Thanks, spool

 

[bcastner]

From your description it does not appear as a rights issue but something much more subtle. The shutdown command in windows simply calls windows to shut itself down. If there are any issues bothering its ACPI service, it simply will not shutdowm.

Because third party products are also failing, I suspect this might be the cause.

Two new approaches to play with:

MS MVP Andrej Budja wrote this little freeware utility to handle exactly this problem. I recommend you spend a little time on the forum for the utility as well.

Warning: He named this program shutdowm as well. I strongly suggest you do two things:

1. Rename it
2. Place it in the c:\windows\system32 directory.

http://www.budja.com/shutdown/

2. A different XP native utility

The Win2k server shutdown utility tsshutdn.exe is included in Windows XP in c:\windows\system32.

Its syntax is more involved than shutdowm.exe from XP. Do a tsshutdn /? to get a feel for it.

I would try the following shortcut:
C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM32\TSSHUTDN.EXE 0 /DELAY:0 /POWERDOWN

Best wishes,

Bill

 

[spool]

Thanks Bill,

I just was going to post an update when I saw yours. I already knew about Andrej Budja Shutdown.exe but I wanted to stay away from third party. But as long as I tried the others and they did not work I said to myself lets try Budja's as a last resort. Guess what it works. It worked on a stand alone, Peer to Peer and a Domain setup on all user accounts desktops that do not have Administrator access.

tsshutdn.exe was tried a couple of posts ago and it hangs up at Windows is Shutting Down screen. What I read about this one, when it is executed it shocks the system because if any apps are open it closes them without any hesitation. This could have an adverse affect and may haunt us later.

Well another problem solved. Now lets see what the next one will be. Boy I love my job.

I'm going to give you a star just because the suggestions you gave would have helped me if I wasn't one step ahead of you. You were the only one that took the time to help.
Soooooo

Thanks again,
Tom

 

[bcastner]

"tsshutdn.exe was tried a couple of posts ago and it hangs up at Windows is Shutting Down screen. What I read about this one, when it is executed it shocks the system because if any apps are open it closes them without any hesitation. This could have an adverse affect and may haunt us later."

Just a comment. Terminal Services Shutdown ruthlessly closes open TS sessions, which is its intended purpose. All shutdown routines will close open windows applications with usually variable parameters to allow some time for the application to close. The regular Windows Shutdown command gives notice to all applications, waits 20 seconds, then closes them (unless adjusted with a parameter to wait longer). TSSHUTDN actually waits by default 30 seconds, so it is more generous than the default native XP utility. The only other difference is that TSSHUTDN does not rely on Windows services for the final shutdown command, but uses directly an ACPI service call.

I think what you were referring to is that if a TS operator is going to close TS sessions, they better check to make sure that is an okay thing to do.

Best.
Bill