What happens if you press the power button in different OSes?

The power button on computers used to be a physical button that would turn off the power to the computer. To safely turn off the computer, you would shut down via the operating system, it would then say "it is now safe to turn off your computer" and then you would press the power button.

On modern computers, short-pressing the power button when the computer is on sends a signal to the operating system which the operating system can then decide how to respond to. This is known as an ACPI Shutdown.

0:00 - Intro
1:23 - Windows 1 to Windows NT 3.1
1:38 - Windows 95
1:58 - Windows NT 4.0
2:24 - Windows 98, 2000, ME
2:54 - Windows XP
3:19 - Windows Vista to Windows 8.1
3:43 - Windows 10 and 11
4:11 - GNOME (Ubuntu, Fedora, Kali Linux, Pop!_OS, Zorin OS)
4:35 - KDE (KDE neon, Kubuntu)
4:49 - Cinnamon (Linux Mint)
4:58 - XFCE (Debian 10, MX Linux)
5:12 - LXDE (Raspbain)
5:19 - Unity (Old Ubuntu)
5:32 - MATE (Ubuntu MATE 21.10, Ubuntu MATE 15.10)
5:45 - Budgie (Ubuntu Budgie)
5:53 - Deepin Desktop (Deepin OS 20.4, Deepin OS 15.3)
5:08 - MaXX (Lirix)
6:16 - Elementary OS
6:23 - Endless OS
6:31 - theShell
6:40 - BionicPup32
6:50 - Chrome OS
6:57 - Android x86
7:07 - Arch Linux
7:16 - Ubuntu Server
7:24 - Windows PE (Windows 10 Installer, Windows XPE, Hirens BootCD PE)
7:37 - MS-DOS
7:44 - FreeDOS
7:52 - FreeBSD
8:03 - IBM OS/2 WARP 4
8:12 - Sun Solaris 2.4
8:19 - ReactOS
8:27 - SkyOS
8:34 - Haiku
8:42 - MikeOS
8:52 - Plan 9
9:01 - HelenOS
9:08 - Table
9:28 - End screen

A couple more points that I didn't mention in this video:
- In Windows 2000 and later, if hibernation is enabled, "Hibernate" will be another one of the options that the power button can be set to.
- In Windows, if the power button is set to shutdown, while the computer is locked, pressing the power button does nothing.

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[World_of_OSes]

Correction: Windows 95 doesn't support ACPI shutdown, and normally says "It's now safe to turn off your computer.", and then has to be hard powered off. But I think VMware detects that screen and automatically powers off the VM, so it looks like Windows 95 has shut it's self down. If you pause the video just at the right frame, Windows 95 does briefly say "It's now safe to turn off your computer."

[JOELwindows]

iPhone, iPad = locks the device
Android smartphones = locks the device

[Otto]

VirtualBox doesn't supports 9x OSes. This is why you don't get some of the options at VirtualBox while using 9x OSes. I think one of them is the shuting down from OS. It instead just closes the Virtual Machine.

[SearInMinecraft]

for me in GNOME 41.3, if I press the power button on my laptop, it would bring up a shutdown dialog.

[blithegd]

For chromeOS, some versions may bring shutdown dialogue (like Lenovo Chromebook S330)
For ASUS ZenPad (any version) It goes into sleep mode
But how about TempleOS?

[AaronTechnic]

Haven't seen the full video but this is cool

[kingoffootball]

Seeing this OS just brings back memories 😔

[bimoloverivi]

Mobile phone power button functions (long press):

On newer Samsung flagships it wakes Bixby, to show power menu long press vol down + power together

On FaceID iPhones/iPads it wakes Siri, to show power menu long press vol + power together

On some Android devices incl Pixels it wakes Google Assistant, to show power menu follow manufacturer's instructions

On some HUAWEI phones without GMS it wakes Celia Assistant, to show power menu follow HUAWEI's instructions

On BlackBerry 10 devices it powers off

On BlackBerry devices before OS 10 it sleeps, to wake again short press it, to fully power off remove the battery, to power on again reinsert the battery

On most old keypad phones it shuts down

[ndsr_tar]

Bonus: The latest version of ChromeOS (ChromeOS Flex) will brings up the power and log out option. just hold the power button slightly. if you do it quickly, it will transists back.

i think it is a coincidence since i have a chromebook 11 on my lap and idk if that thing does that to an ACPI Shutdown thingy or it will do just like the old version of ChromeOS...

[SERAJAHMADserajahmad]

Thanks for the explanation, but do they mean by (power button) the physical button on the device, or the shutdown icon in the start menu?

[Niranjansbi]

1:55 Is The Frame In Which Windows 95 Say 'It Is Now Safe To Turn Off Your Computer'

[dro_nik]

bro litterally have every single os' every single update

[tiagovsky]

The Power Symbol that you showed on the thumbnail is the On/Off Symbol

[mrdog]

i hope you will reach 100K Subscribers

[AshcroftConnorYTwillbetaken]

Next:

What happens when you press the sleep button on your keyboard in different OSes?

[leonardoplays]

what about lxqt? (lubuntu uses this as default desktop since 18.10 (older versions used lxde desktop)

[Odswietny]

I have Linux Mint and the option I have (the default) is the equivalent to "Ask me what to do" in Windows XP.

[_smb_]

Oh I thought this was an April fools vid

[slimeadventureA]

0:39 How to get a xp paint that is shown on the taskbar in left

[iamzhenn]

In android 86x, It shuts down if you press it twice.