possible to disable power button?

[randomrocker89]

For the love of god, please tell me there is a way to disable the power button from shutting down the computer when its simply pressed? is there a setting where i can set it to be held down for a minimum of 15 seconds before powering the computer down? I have a desktop case and windows 7 .

i have 2 toddlers and 3 cats and between them my computer is constantly being shut down right in the middle of doing things and gaming and its extremely difficult to avoid the urge to hurl the adorable kids and cats across the room 😀

any options? Thanks!

 

[USAFRet]

How to Change the Way the Power Button Behaves in Windows 7
https://www.dummies.com/computers/operating-systems/windows-7/how-to-change-the-way-the-power-button-behaves-in-windows-7/

 

[USAFRet]

Or something like this, glued over the power and reset buttons
https://www.amazon.com/Switch-protects-lights-circuits-accidentally/dp/B06XP9M2FT

Would require some dexterity to hit the button

 

[randomrocker89]

How to Change the Way the Power Button Behaves in Windows 7
https://www.dummies.com/computers/operating-systems/windows-7/how-to-change-the-way-the-power-button-behaves-in-windows-7/

thank you! i noticed the only option is either 'shut down' or 'do nothing' which is good, but occasionally the computer will freeze during certain games or whatever happens and i always hold the button to power it down. It is just the same if i unplug the computers power source and plug it back in, or can that cause problems? if its just the same then that is the solution i will use!

 

[USAFRet]

How to Change the Way the Power Button Behaves in Windows 7
https://www.dummies.com/computers/operating-systems/windows-7/how-to-change-the-way-the-power-button-behaves-in-windows-7/

thank you! i noticed the only option is either 'shut down' or 'do nothing' which is good, but occasionally the computer will freeze during certain games or whatever happens and i always hold the button to power it down. It is just the same if i unplug the computers power source and plug it back in, or can that cause problems? if its just the same then that is the solution i will use!

"just unplugging" can cause data corruption, if something was in write status as you did it.
Holding the power button (generally) talks to the OS, and shuts down somewhat gracefully.

 

[cryoburner]

thank you! i noticed the only option is either 'shut down' or 'do nothing' which is good, but occasionally the computer will freeze during certain games or whatever happens and i always hold the button to power it down. It is just the same if i unplug the computers power source and plug it back in, or can that cause problems? if its just the same then that is the solution i will use!

"just unplugging" can cause data corruption, if something was in write status as you did it.
Holding the power button (generally) talks to the OS, and shuts down somewhat gracefully.

I think he's referring to holding down the button for several seconds to force the system to power down, in situations where the OS is no longer responsive. In that case, the OS won't shut down gracefully, and there could potentially be data loss either way. I would agree that directly unplugging is probably worse though, as it could be bad on hardware.

In any case, I believe that even if the power button is set to do nothing in Windows options, holding it for several seconds should still perform a forced shutdown, since that's controlled by the motherboard, not Windows. If the problem only involves the button getting briefly pressed rather then held down, that might be a suitable enough solution that would still allow you to force a shutdown when required. If that's not enough, you might try going into your BIOS settings and looking whether there are any options to adjust what the motherboard does when the power button is pressed or held down.

And as a possible hardware solution, you could try relocating the power button to someplace other than the front of the case. Or detach the connection for the button, and use a wireless solution like one of these, which are available for around $25 on Amazon, and are powered by either PCIe or a USB header...

https://www.silverstonetek.com/product.php?pid=770
https://www.silverstonetek.com/product.php?pid=714