As another IT guy at a university, having to manually turn on 30 computers in a classroom for updates or whatever is already a pain in the ass. Wake on LAN is not a reliable solution. Havin to manually flip over every box, then putting them down, and then fixing the cables that got yanked… I’d throw those fuckers in the trash.
The Dell Optiplex 3080 Micro’s form factor is perfectly tiny without compromising user comfort.
I have never bought an iPhone or a Mac and I agreed at first that this seems an extra step. But you surely wouldn’t have to flip it over? The device will be raised enough it appears that a finger could slide in the gap and hit that button. But maybe I don’t know shit or have slender fingers or something but feels like it could be operated without flipping.
I have been using a MacBook trough work for 7 years now and I think I actually clicked shutdown once this year too keep the battery at ~80% during my 1 month holiday. Otherwise I maybe reboot it once every month or two to fix some weird homebrew upgrade issues. And that’s it. The thing is just “on” in deep sleep, forever.
If the Mac mini’s behave similarly to the MacBooks, the standby energy usage is so low it’s probably easier to just keep it in on/standby/sleep all the time and just wake it by keyboard or mouse. And because Apple develop their own hardware, standby and sleep actually work reliably. So they probably intend for you to only use that power button for a hard reset. Even shutting it down and moving it, plugging the power back in wil probably start it up again. Just like opening the lid on my shutdown MacBook also boots it before I even touch the power button. Even a keypress or mouseclick will probably turn the damn thing on.
Yes it’s an odd design choice, but in regular day to day use it probably won’t matter. Especially if you realise that its not a windows machine that needs to shutdown or reboot often.
Yeah my current Windows machine only gets rebooted upon updates, but previously I’ve noted needing to do it more frequently. My work laptop I shut down out of habit because they only supplied me with an 8gb ram device.
When I’m forced to move to Win 11 on my personal PC I’ll move to Linux instead.
I had to update a remote laptop where windows was EoL for patching cutoff on a weekend and I threw my arms up in the air when it reported in a few minutes later
Mainly because our students are idiots and will complain if the computer doesn’t turn off. Or worse, take independent action and hold the power button, or actually yank the power cable. Maybe I should just lean into it and convince them that the monitor is the computer.
Jokes aside, how could I implement such a policy? I’ve only found one that hides the power buttons from the start menu, but Windows still responds to ACPI.
The policy you’re looking for is in Computer Configuration->Policies->Windows Settings->Security Settings->Local Policies->User Rights Assignments->Shut down the system
This policy takes account or group names from your local or domain AD as its variable (like Domain Admins). After it’s successfully applied, only those users or groups will be able to shutdown the machine gracefully.
Create a new GPO or edit an existing one and apply it to the ADUC organizational unit containing the computer objects you need to target.
Thanks, but that’s the same one that I found. It removes the power button from the start menu and disables the shutdown command, but the computer still responds to ACPI and even the keyboard’s power-off button.
You can handle those issues with power, setting group policies, and inhibiting action when the power button is pressed (that includes keyboard power buttons). Nothing will stop the user from killing power by holding the physical power button down, except for changing that setting (if available) in the BIOS.
There are use-cases where a computer should not be turned off by its user for the purpose of remote management. I’m dealing with one just as I’m writing this comment.
There’s an exam in a classroom. In 20 minutes I’ll have to run an ansible script to remove this group’s work, clean up the project directory, and rollback two VMs to the prepared snapshot to get ready for the next group. I’ve put a big-ass banner on the wallpaper telling the students not to shut down the computer, and already half of them are off.
As another IT guy at a university, having to manually turn on 30 computers in a classroom for updates or whatever is already a pain in the ass. Wake on LAN is not a reliable solution. Havin to manually flip over every box, then putting them down, and then fixing the cables that got yanked… I’d throw those fuckers in the trash.
The Dell Optiplex 3080 Micro’s form factor is perfectly tiny without compromising user comfort.
I have never bought an iPhone or a Mac and I agreed at first that this seems an extra step. But you surely wouldn’t have to flip it over? The device will be raised enough it appears that a finger could slide in the gap and hit that button. But maybe I don’t know shit or have slender fingers or something but feels like it could be operated without flipping.
What am I missing?
Still a daft design but yeah…
I have been using a MacBook trough work for 7 years now and I think I actually clicked shutdown once this year too keep the battery at ~80% during my 1 month holiday. Otherwise I maybe reboot it once every month or two to fix some weird homebrew upgrade issues. And that’s it. The thing is just “on” in deep sleep, forever.
If the Mac mini’s behave similarly to the MacBooks, the standby energy usage is so low it’s probably easier to just keep it in on/standby/sleep all the time and just wake it by keyboard or mouse. And because Apple develop their own hardware, standby and sleep actually work reliably. So they probably intend for you to only use that power button for a hard reset. Even shutting it down and moving it, plugging the power back in wil probably start it up again. Just like opening the lid on my shutdown MacBook also boots it before I even touch the power button. Even a keypress or mouseclick will probably turn the damn thing on.
Yes it’s an odd design choice, but in regular day to day use it probably won’t matter. Especially if you realise that its not a windows machine that needs to shutdown or reboot often.
Yeah my current Windows machine only gets rebooted upon updates, but previously I’ve noted needing to do it more frequently. My work laptop I shut down out of habit because they only supplied me with an 8gb ram device.
When I’m forced to move to Win 11 on my personal PC I’ll move to Linux instead.
It looks like it’s raised up off the desk by the circular portion in the center. Still annoying to press but a finger probably fits under there.
WoL is amazing when it works
I had to update a remote laptop where windows was EoL for patching cutoff on a weekend and I threw my arms up in the air when it reported in a few minutes later
You’re a Windows shop? Why don’t you deploy a policy that prevents users from shutting down computers?
Mainly because our students are idiots and will complain if the computer doesn’t turn off. Or worse, take independent action and hold the power button, or actually yank the power cable. Maybe I should just lean into it and convince them that the monitor is the computer.
Jokes aside, how could I implement such a policy? I’ve only found one that hides the power buttons from the start menu, but Windows still responds to ACPI.
The policy you’re looking for is in Computer Configuration->Policies->Windows Settings->Security Settings->Local Policies->User Rights Assignments->Shut down the system
This policy takes account or group names from your local or domain AD as its variable (like Domain Admins). After it’s successfully applied, only those users or groups will be able to shutdown the machine gracefully.
Create a new GPO or edit an existing one and apply it to the ADUC organizational unit containing the computer objects you need to target.
Thanks, but that’s the same one that I found. It removes the power button from the start menu and disables the
shutdowncommand, but the computer still responds to ACPI and even the keyboard’s power-off button.You can handle those issues with power, setting group policies, and inhibiting action when the power button is pressed (that includes keyboard power buttons). Nothing will stop the user from killing power by holding the physical power button down, except for changing that setting (if available) in the BIOS.
Computer config->Preferences->Control panel settings->Power options
Why would they be idiots for wanting to turn these computers off?
If the computers aren’t running something important while not in use, I think they should turn them off as we’re already wasting far too much energy.
I might be missing something, but it sounds like leaving your car running or leaving lights on in your home the whole year.
There are use-cases where a computer should not be turned off by its user for the purpose of remote management. I’m dealing with one just as I’m writing this comment.
There’s an exam in a classroom. In 20 minutes I’ll have to run an ansible script to remove this group’s work, clean up the project directory, and rollback two VMs to the prepared snapshot to get ready for the next group. I’ve put a big-ass banner on the wallpaper telling the students not to shut down the computer, and already half of them are off.
Oh my. Good luck!
Okay in such a case I understand why these machines shouldn’t be turned off.
But, for normal people using their computers for admin/gaming, I still think it’s one of the easy ways of saving a bit of energy.
Most computers go into a deep power saving mode when they aren’t in use. Far less than a light bulb or power brick.