If you want to hide the Restart button in Windows 11/10, here is how you can do that. It is possible to show or hide the Restart button from Start Menu, Windows login screen, and Win+X menu with the help of Local Group Policy Editor and Registry Editor.
Windows 11 displays the Restart option in three different places – Start menu (when you click the Power button), the Win+X menu, and the log on screen. If important work is being done in the background on your home computer and you do not want others or any app to restart your PC, you can hide the Restart button or prevent users and apps from restarting your computer. As said earlier, there is no need to use third-party application since it is possible to turn on the policy using GPEDIT and REGEDIT.
How to Show or Hide Restart button using Group Policy
To show or hide the Restart button in Windows 11 using Group Policy, follow these steps:
- Press Win+R to open the Run prompt.
- Type gpedit.msc and click the OK button.
- Navigate to Start Menu and Taskbar in User Configuration.
- Double-click on the Remove and prevent access to the Shut Down, Restart, Sleep, and Hibernate commands setting.
- Choose the Enabled option.
- Click the OK button.
To learn more about these steps in detail, continue reading.
To get started, you need to open the Local Group Policy Editor first. For that, press Win+R to open the Run prompt, type gpedit.msc, and click on the OK button.
Next, navigate to this path:
User Configuration > Administrative Templates > Start Menu and Taskbar
Here you can find a setting named Remove and prevent access to the Shut Down, Restart, Sleep, and Hibernate commands. Double-click on this setting and choose the Enabled option.
Click the OK button to apply the change. Following that, you cannot find the Restart button or option in all those three places.
If you want to revert the change, you need to open the same setting in the Local Group Policy Editor and select the Not Configured option.
As said before, it is possible to make the same change in Windows 11 using Registry Editor. Therefore, if you want to follow the REGEDIT method, the following guide is for you.
How to Show or Hide Restart button using Registry Editor
To show or hide the Restart button in Windows 11 using Registry Editor, follow these steps:
- Search for regedit in the Taskbar search box.
- Click on the individual search result.
- Click the Yes button on the UAC prompt.
- Navigate to Explorer in HKCU.
- Right-click on Explorer > New > DWORD (32-bit) Value.
- Name it as NoClose.
- Double-click on it to set the Value data as 1.
- Click the OK button.
- Restart your computer.
To know more about these steps, keep reading.
First, you need to open the Registry Editor. For that, search for regedit in the Taskbar search box, click on the individual search result, and click the Yes button on the UAC prompt.
Once the Registry Editor is opened, navigate to this path:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer
Here you need to create a REG_DWORD value. To do that, right-click on the Explorer key, select New > DWORD (32-bit) Value and name it as NoClose.
Next, double-click on the REG_DWORD value and set the Value data as 1.
Click the OK button, close all windows, and restart your computer to apply the change.
If you want to get back the Restart button, you can open the same REG_DWORD value and set the Value data as 0. Alternatively, you can delete the NoClose REG_DWORD value as well.
That’s all! Hope it helped.
Read: Remove Power or Shutdown button from Login Screen, Start Menu, WinX menu
How do I turn off the restart button in Windows 11?
There are two ways to turn off the restart button in Windows 11. First, you can use the Local Group Policy Editor, and secondly, you can use the Registry Editor. In the Group Policy Editor, find the Remove and prevent access to the Shut Down, Restart, Sleep, and Hibernate commands setting and choose the Enabled option. Similarly, in the Registry Editor, create a NoClose REG_DWORD value in the Explorer (full path mentioned above) key, and set the Value data as 1.
Where is the restart button on Windows 11?
There are three places where you can find the Restart button on Windows 11 – in the Start Menu, on the log on screen, and in the Win+X menu. There is one more place where you can find the same – ALT+F4 menu. However, it is possible to hide the Restart button from all those three sections. A detailed guide is mentioned above, and you can follow it to get the job done.
Read: Prevent users from shutting down or restarting Windows computer
