Classic Shell: Forum

This post regards the apparent bug found when trying to remove the "Lock" option in the Shut Down menu of the "Windows 7 style" Classic Shell Menu 4.0.2 in Windows 8.1. As far as I know, there is no configuration option for the removal. Also, I searched the forum for an answer, but I couldn't find one.

Using tweaks to Windows 7's operating system that worked with Windows 7's built-in Start menu, I was able to remove the "Hibernate", "Switch User", and "Log off" options from the "Windows 7 style" Classic Shell Menu in Windows 8.1. These were the tweaks, and the computer was restarted after them to make absolutely sure that the registry changes took effect:

• Disabled hibernation by running "powercfg.exe /hibernate off" (without quotes) at a command prompt with administrator privileges
• In the registry, navigated to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE > SOFTWARE > Microsoft > Windows > CurrentVersion > Policies > System, and then created a new DWORD value called HideFastUserSwitching and set its value to 1
• In the registry, navigated to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE > SOFTWARE > Microsoft > Windows > CurrentVersion > Policies > Explorer, and then created a new DWORD value called StartMenuLogOff and set its value to 1

In Windows 7, I was able to disable (gray out) the "Lock" option using this registry edit:

In the registry, navigated to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE > SOFTWARE > Microsoft > Windows > CurrentVersion > Policies > System, and then created a new DWORD value called DisableLockWorkstation and set its value to 1

However, it had no effect (visually or functionally) on the "Lock" option in the "Windows 7 style" Classic Shell Menu in Windows 8.1, so I undid this registry tweak.

As in Windows 7, though, I was able to remove the "Lock" option from the Windows Security (Ctrl+Alt+Del) screen using this registry modification:

In the registry, navigated to HKEY_CURRENT_USER > Software > Microsoft > Windows > CurrentVersion > Policies, created a new Key called System, and then, inside that key, created a new DWORD value called DisableLockWorkstation and set its value to 1

That worked to disable the "Lock" option in the "Windows 7 style" Classic Shell Menu in Windows 8.1, but the "Lock" option is still visible in the Shut Down menu without being grayed out.

Is it a bug that I was able to remove "Switch User" and "Log off" in Windows 8.1 using the same registry modifications that disabled those options in Windows 7, but a similar registry tweak for disabling "Lock" in Windows 7's Start menu does nothing in Classic Shell's Start menu in Windows 8.1?

I would like to remove the "Lock" option from the Shut Down menu of the "Windows 7 style" Start menu in Windows 8.1. How can this be done?

Thank you very much for the help. Classic Shell is AWESOME!

It can't be done. Windows and Classic Shell are two separate programs with their own settings. You can't expect that every hidden or undocumented Windows setting will be respected by Classic Shell. Also you can't expect that every little aspect of the Windows 7 style-menu is configurable. The whole point of that style is to provide a more static and consistent look at the expense of some flexibility.

That said, I am working on a new set of group policy settings to provide a more direct way of tweaking such options.

Thanks, Ivo. You are right. I didn't know if Classic Shell would respect the Windows 7 settings for the Shut Down menu, but since I gave it a shot and saw that almost all of the tweaks worked, I wondered if it was a bug that one of them didn't work. Thanks for answering my question so quickly, letting me know that it wasn't a bug, and thank you very much for the configuration settings that you are adding. I really appreciate it.