I'm sure it makes sense in plenty of enterprisey environments. But I'm not a big fan of seeing the following every time I want to shut down or restart my server or one of my VMs:

Accordingly, I typically just drop to DOS and run >shutdown /f /r /t 1 to force a reboot or what not. (Especially since if FORCES any non-responding apps to shut down and what not.)

That said, I sometimes like being able to use the menu... and don't want to be nagged with dev machines/VMs.

The process for turning this Shutdown Event Tracker in Longhorn/2008 is really similar to what you'd do with a Server 2003 instance - just that the options are in slightly different spots.

1). Start > Run > and then type in "gpedit.msc" (minus the quotes) and hit enter.
2) In the Local Group Policy Editor, Expand to the Computer Configuration > Administrative Templates > System node.
3) In the right-pane, scroll down a ways to the bottom of the listing of templates, and then double-click on the Display Shutdown Event Tracker entry as shown below, and set it to disabled.

Voila... no more nag screens.