How do I configure Windows 10 so that it displays a confirmation dialog every time I press the Shut down
button?
Sometimes I would shutdown my computer accidentally, as the sleep button is just above shutdown button, and lose my unsaved work:
How do I configure Windows 10 so that it displays a confirmation dialog every time I press the Shut down
button?
Sometimes I would shutdown my computer accidentally, as the sleep button is just above shutdown button, and lose my unsaved work:
One way to get a confirmation dialog upon hitting the shutdown button is to enable Shutdown Event Tracker:
Configure Shutdown Event Tracker on the Local Computer
Since the link above is not up-to-date for Windows 10, the following are step-by-step instructions for Windows 10 (verified with version 21H1):
gpedit.msc
Local Computer Policy
navigation pane, expand Computer Configuration
, expand Administrative Templates
, and click All Settings
Display Shutdown Event Tracker
Enabled
Options
, Shutdown Event Tracker should be displayed:
is set to Always
OK
You will have to select a reason for the shutdown, like so:
gpedit.msc > Local Computer Policy > Computer Configuration > Administrative Templates > All Settings > Display Shutdown Event Tracker
worked for me.
Create the following batch file and use instead.
@ECHO OFF
:choice
set /P c=Are you sure you want to shutdown[Y/N]?
if /I "%c%" EQU "Y" goto :yesplease
if /I "%c%" EQU "N" goto :nothanks
goto :choice
:yesplease
shutdown /s /t 10
exit
:nothanks
exit
Paste this text into notepad, and save it as "shutdown.bat" (include the quotations.) The quotes force it to save as a .bat file.
edit: removed unecessary pause statements
A confirmation by itself can cause a problem, you might forget about it and leave the computer without it shutting down. The solution is like in Macs to have a confirmation but also auto-shutdown after some time if you don't cancel it.
I don't know of a way to do that natively on Windows, I think you need a 3rd party app for that. I know Penteract CMD GUI Creator can do it (See here and scroll to "Shutdown with confirmation and auto-execute"), but there might be other apps that do it as well.
Because Windows 10 Home does not have gpedit.msc, you need to directly modify the registry to add Shutdown Event Tracker
(even if gpedit.msc is forcibly added through cmd bat, the modification is useless).
Modify the registry method refer to https://www.tenforums.com/tutorials/78343-enable-disable-shutdown-event-tracker-windows-10-a.html
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows NT\Reliability]
"ShutdownReasonOn"=dword:00000001
"ShutdownReasonUI"=dword:00000001