A couple of days ago, a friend of mine approached me with a screenshot of the Windows 10 Start menu with the power icon clicked. Shut down, restart, sleep, and hibernate options were not appearing when the power icon was clicked.
These power options were not appearing even in the Power User menu, which appears when you right-click on the Start button or press Windows + X keyboard shortcut. Only the Sign-out option was available, as you can see in the picture below.
When tried to launch the Shutdown Windows dialog (which appears when you use Alt + F4 hotkey from desktop), my friend got “This operation has been canceled due restrictions in effect on this computer. Please contact your system administrator” error.
If shut down, restart, hibernate and sleep options are not appearing in the Start menu or other areas of your Windows 10, Windows 8.1 or Windows 7, you can follow the directions mentioned in one of the given below methods to fix the issue.
Restore shut down, restart, sleep and hibernate options
Method 1 of 2
If you are on Home edition, refer to the directions in Method 2 as Group Policy is not present in the Home edition.
Important: Hibernate option will appear only if you have turned it on. Refer to our how to enable hibernation in Windows 10/8 guide to turn it on.
Note that this method works only on Pro edition of Windows 10 as Group Policy Editor is present in Windows 10 Pro, Windows 8 Pro, Windows 7 Pro and above editions only. Follow the instructions in Method 2 (scroll down to see) if you’re on Home edition.
Step 1: Type Gpedit.msc in Start menu search box and hit the Enter key to open Local Group Policy Editor.
Step 2: Once the Local Group Policy Editor is opened, navigate to User Configuration > Administrative Templates > Start Menu and Taskbar.
Step 3: On the right side, locate the policy labeled Remove and prevent access to the Shut Down, Restart, Sleep and Hibernate commands, right-click on it and then click Properties.
Step 4: Select Disabled to show shut down, restart, sleep, and other options in the power menu and then click the Apply button.
Method 2 of 2
Restore shut down, restart and sleep via Registry
This method can be used on any edition of Windows 10, Windows 8, or Windows 7. Before following the directions, we recommend you create a manual restore point just in case if something goes wrong while making changes to the Registry.
Step 1: Open Registry Editor. To open it, type Regedit in Start menu or taskbar search box and then press Enter. The same can also be typed in the Run command box and then hit Enter key to open Registry Editor.
Click Yes button when you see the User Account Control prompt. If you’re using a non-admin account, you will be asked to enter the admin password.
Step 2: In the Registry Editor, navigate to the following key:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER \ Software \ Microsoft \ Windows \ CurrentVersion \ Policies \ Explorer
Step 3: On the right-side, double-click on the entry labeled NoClose, and change its value to 0 (zero).
Close the Registry Editor. Either restart Windows Explorer or sign out and sign in again. Shut down, restart, hibernate, and sleep options should now available in the power menu of the Start menu as well as other areas.
Ulla says
Why all those buttons has to be taken out?
dinesh says
On the right-side, not found the entry labeled NoClose
Ashwin Suraj says
Thank u man ! You are a life saver (Note: As Bill.W’s comment says, it only worked after I created the same “No Close” string with 0 value in HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE. Thank you
Bill W. says
This article worked for me, but I also found that I needed to set the same key in HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE as well. After that, no issues. Now my only thought is “why” did it happen in the first place?
Rene Williams says
As of today, the current version of Win 10 Pro only has one option under Explorer = Default.
Abbster says
Awesome, this worked for me. Appreciate the help.
Amber H. says
OH man! Thank you for this walk through – But I also don’t have the noclose option available!
Tilman says
Doesn’t work for me either.
Win10 pro, logged on as domain user.
Although I could modify the group policy accordingly, it did not have any effect. Checking the RegEdit, I don’t have the Explorer subgroup in the Policies folder… (and therefore no “NoClose” as well….)
Any hint would be appreciated!
Chris says
Not solved, computer is joined to a domain though
Rene says
Thankyou!! This worked for me after spending lots of time trying every fix I could find.
muhammadiical says
thanks bro, its actually working
Asten M says
All you have to do is add it there if you are missing it. It works fine.
Mat says
Same here, I dont have the ‘noclose’ line at all. Also have the ‘ab Default’ at the top.
J. Dial says
I don’t have a noclose option. I’m in the right place, I have the ab default at the top.