Authentication for Power Button?

I recently bought a new laptop and wanted to know if there was a way to require a finger print match for the power button to work, as on this Huawei Matebook the fingerprint reader is right on the power button and it would be convenient if it was possible to make it only activate if the correct finger is pressing the button. Any possible way to make this work?

Don't really think it matters but the red warning tells me to include that I'm running Windows 10 Home version 1903

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To make that possible, it would need to be a feature of the that particular hardware and firmware. Remember, you are asking for something to be done before the operating system has even started loading, so there is absolutely nothing that Windows can do to make this work.

You might want to check the documentation for your specific notebook to see if such a feature is available.

hsehestedt said:

Welcome to TenForums!

To make that possible, it would need to be a feature of the that particular hardware and firmware. Remember, you are asking for something to be done before the operating system has even started loading, so there is absolutely nothing that Windows can do to make this work.

You might want to check the documentation for your specific notebook to see if such a feature is available.

Thanks for replying, also I get what you mean but as this hardware in particular is compatible with Windows Hello (forgot to mention this) I thought that something could be done on windows' side of things... perhaps like when some tasks require admin authentication and ask you to either use password, pin or biometric authentication?

... but if the thumbprint reader software fails or becomes corrupted... you've bricked your laptop. I think that's why that option isn't available.

WillyJL said:

Thanks for replying, also I get what you mean but as this hardware in particular is compatible with Windows Hello (forgot to mention this) I thought that something could be done on windows' side of things... perhaps like when some tasks require admin authentication and ask you to either use password, pin or biometric authentication?

That makes no sense. Again, think about this: You are asking for the fingerprint reader to read your fingerprint while pressing the power button before Windows is running. How on earth can Windows possibly interact with the power button / fingerprint reader if it is not even running?

This would be same as formatting your HD or even ripping the disk out of system and still expecting Windows to interact with the power button. It's simply not going to happen. It would have to be something that is built-in at the hardware / firmware level.

hsehestedt said:

That makes no sense. Again, think about this: You are asking for the fingerprint reader to read your fingerprint while pressing the power button before Windows is running. How on earth can Windows possibly interact with the power button / fingerprint reader if it is not even running?

This would be same as formatting your HD or even ripping the disk out of system and still expecting Windows to interact with the power button. It's simply not going to happen. It would have to be something that is built-in at the hardware / firmware level.

I'm sorry I hadn't explained clearly what I meant... what I'd like is that when the laptop is on and loaded into windows it requires the fingerprint to match to shut down from the button, but only in that scenario, so that shutting down from the start menu acts like normal but trying to shutdown pressing the power button requires the fingerprint match. So maybe some way to remap the power button to a small program that requires the match and then shutsdown possibly? (that's how I'd imagine it to work)

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The Pool Man said:

... but if the thumbprint reader software fails or becomes corrupted... you've bricked your laptop. I think that's why that option isn't available.

yes and no... what I meant is just to require the fingerprint to shutdown when windows is booted up, not for it to be needed also to turn on the system... sorry for not being clear about what I meant

Ahhh, to shutdown rather than power on. Big difference!

Okay, at least now I understand fully.

Unfortunately, I am still not aware of any way to do that. The closest thing that I can think of is to simply disable the power button altogether like this....




Choose the "Do nothing" option in the above screenshot.

NOTE: Even this won't disable the forced shutdown (pressing the power button for a minimum of 4 seconds).