How to add the power button to the Start screen on tablets

If you own a Windows 8.1 tablet and have installed Update 1, you might have noticed that the power button is missing on the Start Screen. This is by design - for some screen sizes, Windows 8.1 Update hides that button to save space on the screen. Also, if your device supports the Connected Standby feature, then the button will be hidden regardless of the screen size - Microsoft assumes that you will use the physical power button to control the power state. However, if you still want to enable the shutdown button on the Start screen, you can do so using the instructions below.

1. Open Registry Editor (see how)
2. Go to the following key:

   HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\ImmersiveShell\Launcher

   Tip: You can access any desired Registry key with one click.

3. Create a new DWORD value named Launcher_ShowPowerButtonOnStartScreen and set it to 1.
   
4. Restart the Explorer.exe shell or restart Windows.

Now the Power button will appear on the Start screen of your tablet. Winaero readers have reported to us that for some tablets like the Surface RT, the power button is hidden but for the Surface Pro which is a hybrid tablet+PC, the power button is shown by default. If you own a Windows 8 tablet, do tell us in the comments if the Shutdown button is enabled for you out-of-the-box after installing Update 1 or whether you had to manually enable it using the method above.

The same can be done using Winaero Tweaker. Go to Windows 8 Modern UI -> Start Screen Power Button:

Use this option to avoid Registry editing.

That's it.