Shutdown shortcut

[tmathews]

I'd like to make it easy for my young son to shut down the computer when he's done. Ideally I'd like him to be able to just hit the power button or click an icon on the desktop. The machine in question is an ancient Celeron 466 running XP Pro SP3.

A short press of the power button is ignored, while a long press does a hard power-down and leaves XP upset at the next boot. I've poked around Power Options in the control panel and don't see any options to change the function of the power button like I have on my other machines. Unless there's someplace else I should look, I'm assuming the hardware is just too old for XP to support that feature.

I created a desktop shortcut to XP's shutdown utility and it works, but only as long as his account has Administrator privileges (which I'd rather not give him). It works if I right-click and Run As... but that requires my password each time. Under Properties, I see a check box to "Run with different credentials" but I don't see any way to select who to run as or provide a password. It's possible to Start->Shutdown->Shutdown but that's a bit much for him.

Any ideas on what I'm doing wrong or not doing at all.

[EzyStvy]

Creating a Shutdown/Reboot Icon


WindowsXP has a program called SHUTDOWN.EXE which allows you to easily create icons to shutdown or restart your computer.

To create a shutdown shortcut on the desktop:

Right click on an open area of the desktop
Select New / Shortcut
Enter in "shutdown -s -t 00" - no quotes
Press the Next button
For the name, enter in anything you like. I just use shutdown. Click on the Finish button.
For a reboot, enter "shutdown -r -t 00"

Shutdown [{-l|-s|-r|-a}] [-f] [-m [\\ComputerName]] [-t xx] [-c "message"] [-d[u][p]:xx:yy]

Parameters

-l - Logs off the current user, this is also the defualt. -m ComputerName takes precedence.
-s - Shuts down the local computer.
-r - Reboots after shutdown.
-a - Aborts shutdown. Ignores other parameters, except -l and ComputerName. You can only use -a during the time-out period.
-f - Forces running applications to close.
-m [\\ComputerName] - Specifies the computer that you want to shut down.
-t xx - Sets the timer for system shutdown in xx seconds. The default is 20 seconds.
-c "message" - Specifies a message to be displayed in the Message area of the System Shutdown window. You can use a maximum of 127 characters. You must enclose the message in quotation marks.

[Spools]

Have you tried this yet? http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,1759,156438,00.asp

EDIT: sorry, same info as EzyStvy

[glc]

Guys, isn't that the shortcut utility he is referring to?

[tmathews]

That's what I've tried and it only seems to work if you're an Administrator. As soon as I take away Administrator privileges on his account it stops working.

Any other ideas?

[sgtspector]

You can try this: http://www.karenware.com/powertools/ptstopper.asp It will do what you want but I am not sure about admin privileges though.
Edit: During install select the button to make it available to all users.

[tmathews]

Yep, that one works without Adminstrator privileges. Thanks!

I installed it for all users then (with Administrator privileges active) launched it and checked the boxes to create a shortcut for power down. I then changed the icon by right-click->Properties->Change Icon. This provides a nice easy double-click solution for my son.

Thanks to all who helped!