How can I power down on shutdown in Windows NT 4.0 without changing hal.dll?

John Savill

June 11, 2003

1 Min Read
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A. In a previous FAQ, I described how to change hal.dll.softex to let the machine power down on shutdown. The method I described uses the hal.dll.softex file that comes with NT 4.0 Service Pack 4 (SP4) and later. To power down NT 4.0 without modifying hal.dll, perform the following steps:

  1. Run the service pack installer with the /X parameter to extract files only. The service pack will prompt you to provide the location for the extracted files; provide a location and continue.

  2. After you extract the service pack files, copy ppntapm.sys from the extracted files directory to your drivers directory (usually %systemroot%winntsystem32drivers).

  3. Copy the following lines between the "-- begin" and "-- end" lines to Notepad, and save the file as ppntapm.reg.

    -- begin PPNTAPM.REGREGEDIT4[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESYSTEMCurrentControlSetServicesppntapm]"Group"="Power Management""Start"=dword:00000000"Error Control"=dword:00000001"Tag"=dword:000000a1"Type"=dword:00000001[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESYSTEMCurrentControlSetServicesppntapmParameters]"UseDefaultSegmentLimits"=dword:00000001[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESOFTWAREMicrosoftWindows NTCurrentVersionWinlogon]"PowerdownAfterShutdown"="1"-- end PPNTAPM.REG 
  4. Double-click the ppntapm.reg file to import the appropriate registry settings.

  5. Reboot your system for the change to take effect.

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