Customize the Power Button on the Start Menu in Windows 7

Posted on January 27, 2010 at 5:07 am

One of the biggest inspirations for colorful swear words since we started using Windows 7 has been when trying to put the computer into sleep mode, but instead accidently hitting the big shut down button on the start menu rather than the little arrow beside it. Lo and behold, there is actually a very simple remedy for this problem.

First, click the start button. Right click directly on the button where it currently says Shut Down. The only link available says Properties—click it.

In the menu that appears, click the selection menu next to Power button action. From there you can choose the power function you use the most often. In our case, that option is Sleep, but if you are using a networked computer, you might want to choose Log Off. If you share a family computer, you might want to choose Switch User.

Click Apply and OK. If you click the start menu now, you will see the power button with the option you just selected. We predict far fewer four-letter-word utterances in your near future.

Bonus Tip: In the menu above, if you click Customize, you have complete control over what appears on your start menu. If your start menu is displaying too many recent programs, you can minimize the number shown in the selection box at the bottom of the menu.

If you would rather not search through all of your programs to find the ones you use most often, you can also increase this number.

customize start menu

For those of you who are minimalists, you could go through the entire list of possible things to display on the start menu and select don’t display this item and your start menu would look far less cluttered.

» Filed Under Windows 7

Comments

3 Responses to “Customize the Power Button on the Start Menu in Windows 7”

Bikle said on : January 27th, 2010 at 1:18 pm

Thanks for the tip! It’s really useful because I almost never turn off my computer. I currently use the Power button on my laptop to put it to sleep, but I prefer to use that for shutting down.

Kyle said on : January 28th, 2010 at 1:06 pm

Good information, I had never thought to right-click on that button before. This is not really related to your article on customizing the power button, but is there an easy way to have your computer restart at a specificed time every day or every couple of days? Thanks!

John Shelton said on : February 3rd, 2010 at 8:27 am

Thank you very much for this tip. I find that I restart my computer probably 10 times for every time I shut it down. (Shut Down and Restart are the only two I ever use) Another of the dozens of Windows 7 annoyances has been solved.

Now if I could only arrange the order of my icons within a Windows Explorer folder to my liking rather than being forced to accept alphabetical order or assign leading numbers to the name of each program represented by the icon. I could do this from at least Windows 95 through Vista and Windows 7 takes it away. (another of the dozens of Windows 7 annoyances)