Applying power settings to all users on a HP Compaq dc7900??

[Collateral]

I know this may be alittle bit of a long shot on here :shocked: , but we are clutching at straws to find an answer for this problem we are facing at work. Give you alittle bit of background information, i work for a community high as an Computer Engineer, i maintain the servers, computer e.t.c :thumbs_up:

Now we have these HP machines that by default, if you press the power button on the front of the machine, it turns itself into sleep mode. Now we dont want this. Anyway this is my question copied from my tech website.

We currently have a large amount of HP Compaq dc7900 machines, now these are a great bit of kit, however they are defaulted to when the front power button is pressed to go into 'sleep' mode.

This wouldnt be a problem, but as we are using these machines in a school, the kids are pressing the power buttons thinkig they will shut down, and when they aren't just pulling the power cable from the back. We have found this currupts files and a new image is needed everytime.

I have personaly changed the powersettings under Administrator, however as soon as a child or anyone else for that matter logs in, they get the default settings. Is there any type of RegHack or alternative solution to make the computer shut down when the power button is pressed?

Cheers in advance

Ryan

We are currently running Windows Server 2003, now there is no power management on Windows Server 2003. So im looking for a reg hack or anything that will help us.

And before anyone says it, yea we have changed the power settings in the powersettings tab on the actual computer as Admin, but when anyone logs on through the network, it reverts the settings back.

If there is any IT People on here that maybe has experienced the same problem then give us a shout

Oh and the EZ GPO software is purely for setting power save options in group policy, such as monitor sleep times etc. It will not allow you to set the behaviour for pressing the power button to shutdown etc. Also the powercfg command utility that is built into Windows XP doesn't allow settings for the power button.

Just incase any suggest the above


Thanks

[BigDave1979]

We've got a number of these (dc7800 and dc7900 USDTs) and as far as I know the default for the power button is shutdown on ours, but then we strip off all of the pre-load software including any power management.

What sort of user profiles do you have? (local, roaming, mandatory etc?)

[Collateral]

We took all the bloatware off the machines too, and created a fresh image of the machine with the 'button management' set to 'shutdown' when pressed. But when other users log in it reverts to 'standby'.

Well its alittle bit 'up in the air' here, we dont really use any of the microsoft profiles to be honest. We use a piece of software called 'Ranger' (i think its this website AMI Education Solutions Designed for Education | Home). Basically ranger creates the profiles, like one for year 7, year 8 e.t.c and then fires them across the network, and changes what the students can see/access e.t.c

I see where your going, if we were using mandatory profiles we could just create one and fire it accross but its not that simple :P

[BigDave1979]

Well not being familiar with that particular software I can't say for certain, but I'd assume there must be a profile template somewhere that contains a user registry hive to load at login? If this is the case it'd probably be possible to edit it and insert the relevent registry settings for the power management.

[BigDave1979]

Another thought, again if you are able to isolate the registry settings, you could write a custom adm template and apply the settings via group policy.

Edit: Actually, this might not be necessary. Open group policy editor and have a look in Computer Configuration > Administrative Templates > System > Power Button > Button Settings

[JoeyB]

Sounds like one for GP. We also use the dc7900 as our current model (SFF)... I've just had to build a couple of fresh XP machines for a new production line - I'll see what their default action is when the button is pressed.

[BigDave1979]

Just realised I'm being a tit. The GP options I've given above are for Vista/7.

2008 supports power preferences for XP with an update on the XP machine, but that's no good to you, so I reckon you might need to figure out the registry settings you need to apply and write an adm template. The guide is here.