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.
