In this article, we shall discuss how to allow only Administrators to shut down and reboot Server. This is necessary to ensure non-admin users are unable to shut down or restart the server. Please see Handy Shutdown commands available in Windows, How to prevent a remote shutdown and restart in Windows, and How to find out who restarted Windows Server.
Also, see “How to use command prompt to shutdown and restart your computer“, and “How to prevent users from shutting down in a Virtual Machine“.
Enable only admin users to Shutdown or Restart PC
Launch the local group policy editor (gpedit.msc) and navigate through the following paths.
- Computer Configuration
- Windows Settings
- Security Settings
- Local Policies
- User Rights Assignment
- Shutdown the system
Double click on “shutdown the system” and remove all other groups except the administrators’ groups as shown below.
Since this setting is local to this PC. Run the GPUpdate as shown below via the command prompt to ensure the policy applies immediately.
With this configuration, users who are part of the Administrators group can shut down a PC. Or reboot the servers.
I hope you found this article on how to allow only Administrators to shut down and reboot Server very useful. Please feel free to leave a comment below.
