[Usability] Modify Shutdown Menu (1 Viewer)

[doveman]

At the moment, the Shutdown menu popup shows "Shutdown, Restart, Sleep, Hibernate" and defaults to Shutdown. As I use my PC as an HTPC, Sleep is the only option I ever use here (and what I will advise others I'm building HTPC's for to always use), but I fear it's too easy for the user to accidentally select the wrong option and Shutdown or Restart their system (perhaps messing up any active or imminently scheduled recordings). so Standby should be the default as that would mean the user wouldn't need to move through the cursor after opening the menu, thus reducing the chance of accidentally selecting the wrong option.

In fact I think it would be better if it only showed Sleep (default) and perhaps Close (I have EventGhost setup to start MP when pressing my remote's Power button if MP isn't running, and to show the Power menu if it is and sometimes it's useful to Close MP to do something else, or just to clear a buggy situation and restart MP). The 1.3 alpha version of the skin I use, PurevisionHD Blue, will have a button on the Home menu for Close, so I won't need to enable the Topbar plugin just to have access to the Close button anymore, but for users of other skins I think it would be good for them to have Close in the Shutdown Menu, so they don't need to enable the Topbar plugin either.

I don't know if many people tend to select Hibernate rather than Standby, but if that's common that could continue to be shown as well, otherwise that, along with Shutdown and Restart could either be moved to the Settings menu so that they're available on the rare occassions they might be needed, or even better (if possible) would be to have an Other sub-menu on the Shutdown Menu, which when selected would show these extra (dangerous) options.

So to sum up, my suggestion is that the Shutdown Menu just shows Standby, Hibernate (maybe), Close and Other (maybe), in that order.

 

[doveman]

In addition or as an alternative to modifying the Shutdown, what would be useful is an Action that will popup a "Standby?" dialog similar to the Stop dialog. Then I could assign this to the Power button on my remote, ensuring that no-one accidentally selects Restart or Shutdown. I use the PVHD skin, which now has a hidden button on the Home menu which brings up the current Power menu, so I can still access these options if I need to but as the majority of the time Standby is all we use, it would be good to have a dialog that only offered that.